{"id":6761,"date":"2012-05-24T06:15:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T11:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=6761"},"modified":"2012-12-27T13:34:56","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T19:34:56","slug":"locked-up-but-looking-ahead-employment-after-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/05\/24\/locked-up-but-looking-ahead-employment-after-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked Up But Looking Ahead: Employment After Prison in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Inmate Stephen Argo mans a lathe in the machine shop at the McLeod Correctional Center, where he's been getting skills training. Argo already has a job lined up when he leaves prison in a few days.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Being tough on crime is expensive. It costs Oklahoma taxpayers about $20,000 a year to pay for the housing of each inmate in the state\u2019s overcrowded prison system, Department of Corrections data show.<\/p>

But being tough on crime can also mean giving criminals a chance at having a life on the outside.<\/p>

<\/p>

At the large, open machine shop in the minimum-security McLeod Correctional Center near Atoka, workers are hunched over drill presses and milling stations, jotting notes on blueprints. But every couple of hours, the motors die down and everyone lines up for a head count.<\/p>

Then it\u2019s right back to work.<\/p>

Here, inmates approaching release are getting hands on experience in welding, farming, construction and machining.<\/p>

\u201cI haven\u2019t been out in 16 years, robbery with a firearm,\u201d says Jay Ackley, a McLeod inmate and, basically, the foreman of the machining shop. \u201cI was young and stupid and selfish.\u201d<\/p>

[module align=”right” width=”half” type=”pull-quote”]<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve closed several campuses around the state that, frankly, we just didn\u2019t have the money to continue operating.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Jim Meek, Career Tech Skills Centers Superintendent<\/h6>

[\/module]<\/p>

Ackley has been involved with CareerTech\u2019s Skills Centers school system for the past five years and is one of the program’s biggest advocates.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a lifesaver, man. If these guys are willing to come in and learn, and really dig in, just what we can show them here and teach them here, they\u2019re set for life,” Ackley said. They\u2019ve got a career that\u2019ll last them a lifetime. They don\u2019t ever have to come to prison again.\u201d<\/p>

He has a simple plan for when he\u2019s finally set free next year:<\/p>

\u201cWork, work, work, it\u2019s all about getting out and getting to work.\u201d<\/p>

That\u2019s a sentiment shared by everyone here, including Stephen Argo, who\u2019s prepping his drill to cut a new chess piece.<\/p>

I\u2019ve been gone almost six years, and I\u2019ve done different kinds of programs since I\u2019ve been in. But this is probably the one that\u2019s probably helped change my life right here,\u201d says Argo, who gets out in just a few days. \u201cThe pressure and stress of, \u2018What am I going to do now?\u2019 I don\u2019t really have to worry about that now, because I\u2019m confident and I\u2019ve learned a lot out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chess Pieces<\/h3>

The drill press at Argo\u2019s workstation is meant to machine metal, but these chess pieces are made of wood. Old broom handles, in fact. Aluminum is just too expensive. State budget cuts mean cost-cutting wherever possible, says Jim Meek, superintendent of the Skills Centers.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve closed several campuses around the state that, frankly, we just didn\u2019t have the money to continue operating,\u201d he says.<\/p>

The cuts also resulted in fewer instructors and, consequently, hundreds of fewer inmates participating.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Instructor Rick Reese guides an inmate and machining student adjust a tool on a lathe at the McLeod Correctional Center near Atoka.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\u201cWe were located at Alva, new facility up there. We had a plumbing program, an electrical program up there,\u201d Meek says. \u201cWe had a great deal of success with those young offenders up there. And they\u2019re gone. We can go down to Granite, which is a facility that greatly needs extra programs there. And, uh, when we left there we left with two welding programs.\u201d<\/p>

Back at the McLeod Correctional Center, machining instructor Rick Reese holds up an elaborate aluminum meat tenderizer as he talks about how training prisoners can reduce recidivism, crime rates, unemployment and poverty.<\/p>

\u201cThese guys come from nothing. And when they leave here with the confidence that they can make something like that, that\u2019s huge,\u201d Reese says.<\/p>

These inmates are the lucky ones. They\u2019re getting months, or even years of training. But with less and less money available for the program, fewer and fewer are able to take advantage, and prepare themselves for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being tough on crime is expensive. It costs Oklahoma taxpayers about $20,000 a year to pay for the housing of each inmate in the state\u2019s overcrowded prison system, Department of Corrections data show.But being tough on crime can also mean giving criminals a chance at having a life on the outside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":6771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,16,300],"tags":[380,223,371],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6781,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761\/revisions\/6781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}