Life after incarceration: prisoner employment program teaches job and life skills.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.
• Position: JOBS

Most of the men who work for Greg Houck have never had a straight 9 to 5 job. "A lot of these guys are my age (38) or older and have very little or no work experience," said Houck, production manager II for the Wood Furniture Division of the Department of Corrections Prisoner Employment Program at Alaska Spring Creek Correctional Center near Seward. "We have a lot of people who have never had a job besides being a drug dealer, robber or car thief."

The Wood Furniture Division is one of three employment-training industries offered through the Prisoner Employment Program, which replaced the Alaska Correctional Industries program. The new structure includes stand-alone employment training programs for garment manufacturing at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center, a commercial laundry at Lemon Creek Correctional Center and a wood-furniture shop at Spring Creek.

"The focus is on that basics such as getting to work on time on your own, planning other aspects of your life around your work, getting along with others, taking responsibility for your actions, realizing how your actions in one part of your life affect other parts," Houck said. "When a person has those skills, they will be much more likely to be able to hold a steady job, woodworking or not."

Jolund Luther, administrative officer with the Prisoner Employment Program, said the programs focus on teaching prisoners employability skills, not on teaching a trade they can continue when they are released.

"We're giving them a chance to see how a business functions on the outside," he said of the approximate 30 prisoners who are employed in the wood furniture division.

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Houck said some of the hardest workers he's had in the wood shop struggled with the most rudimentary of work skills. "A new tool comes in and right away they put their name on it and then they're starting fights if anyone else tries to use it."

The jobs also are a way for people serving time to stay current on debts such as child support, Luther said. Prisoners also must stay out of trouble to be eligible to work in the wood shop, he said.

Clif Simons, probation officer III at Spring Creek Correctional Center,

said the value of the Prisoner Employment Program extends beyond the dozens of men and women it employs.

"We teach them skills that they can pass on to their children," he said. "The ultimate goal of what we do is to try to build better people."

Luther said the...