A long-time joke goes something like this: In preparing inmates to find a job once they’re released from prison, they teach them to make license plates, but the only place where license plates are made is in prison.
Actually though, it takes machine operators to make license plates and there are always job openings for skilled machine operators. However, since more than 90 percent of employers run criminal background checks on job applicants, even the most skilled ex-con is not likely to be hired. (HOW CAN EX-CONS GO STRAIGHT IF NO ONE WILL GIVE THEM A JOB? / March 27, 2012)
The work programs of the Texas prison system are typical of those in most other states, as well as the federal system. The problem is that most of the prison work programs involve jobs that are scarce in the private sector, even in good times.
Two programs in Texas prisons do provide skills for which there is a demand in the free world. The inmates who repair school buses can leave prison as skilled auto mechanics. And the inmates who repair computers can leave as skilled computer technicians. But it’s all for naught if employers refuse to hire ex-cons.
Here are some excerpts from ‘Training inmates saving state cash,’ an article by Allan Turner that was published in Sunday’s edition of the Houston Chronicle:
Welcome to Huntsville's Wynne Unit, home of one of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's two computer repair labs, where each month inmate workers fix or discard up to 250,000 pounds of malfunctioning equipment.
In Texas, a state whose prison work programs are best known for agriculture and license plates, the computer shops represent the cutting edge of a factory system that produces everything from street signs to mattresses for state college dorms and soap for scrubbing jailhouse floors.
In the process, Texas Correctional Industries factories in 37 prisons provide job training for up to 5,200 inmates and help cut costs for cities, counties, schools and other tax-supported entities across the state.
The first Texas prison, the Walls Unit in Huntsville, opened its doors in 1849. By 1853, it had been equipped with textile machinery on which inmates processed 500 bales of cotton and 6,000 pounds of wool each year.
Textile operations remain a big part of prison jobs today. Inmates grow and harvest cotton, then spin and weave it into fabric for use in prison clothing, which they sew. Prisoners each month make 110,000 towels, 120,000 pairs of socks, 85,000 shirts and pants, and 75,000 pairs of underwear.
Workers also refurbish public school buses, re-tread tires, produce signs, banners and departmental awards, build furniture, craft shoes and, of course, make license plates.
"This fits our overall mission to help offenders re-integrate," said C.F. Hazelwood, the TDCJ's director of manufacturing and logistics. "One of the best ways is to teach them how to work," he said, "to train and provide them with some sort of skill."
Barbara Belbot, an associate criminal justice professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, said the Texas program is typical of those found in state and federal prisons throughout the nation.
In some cases, the professor noted, the most valuable lessons taught are simply how to responsibly keep a job. As many as 40 percent of those inmates entering the TCI program have no work experience.
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