Job reentry skills offered prisoners

By PAUL KEDINGER
Managing Editor

The Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Department is embarking on a innovative program to assist prisoners nearing the end of their jail term to succeed in the workplace once they are released or placed on probation.
In conjunction with Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, Workforce Investment Area #40 Board and Goodwill Industries, the Sheriff’s Office is finalizing details to provide soon-to-be released inmates career development, and appropriate vocational rehabilitation.
The program, which may begin as soon as August or September, will be known as Acadia Parish Reentry Initiative (APRI).
Sheriff Wayne Melancon’s staff is expected to provide classroom space in the Detention Center, select 40 likely offenders to participate, and provide two corrections officers who will monitor the inmates during each session of the three-month program.
Each class will consist of ten prisoners, determined to be eligible following psychological, medical, educational and vocational assessments. Participation by the prisoners will be totally voluntary. Staff from Louisiana Rehabilitation Services will determine eligibility.
One of the criteria mentioned during a recent planning session at the Parish Jail was that participants must be diagnosed with disabilities, including alcohol or substance abuse.
The course will focus on providing work readiness skill training and appropriate vocational goals.
Following their return to society, the inmates will be offered job development, placement and job retention assistance.
Funding for the reentry course will be provided by the Louisiana Workforce Investment Board.
The course will be taught by an instructor provided by Goodwill Industries, which will also assist in job placement and retention.
According to Lt. Robert Thibodeaux, a training officer with the Sheriff’s Department, plans are to use off-duty corrections officers as classroom guards.
Warden Eby Henry noted inmates who disrupt the classroom will be dismissed. “If they cause problems, they will be dropped,” he said.
Henry also cautioned that some inmates may volunteer for the classroom session solely as an escape from the normal jail routine. “I just don’t want you to have false hopes,” Henry told the representatives from the cooperating agencies.
Deborah Aymond of Louisiana Rehabilitation Services acknowledged that the course won’t provide total success for each inmate-participant, but added, “We know it can work.”
Aymond noted the Acadia Parish project will be unique in Louisiana, though the Lafayette Parish Corrections Center has a similar training and substance abuse program.