Appropriate work assignments in prison and jail can help prepare individuals for postrelease employment and successful re-entry to the community. Most prisoners are assigned some work duties while incarcerated, but typically there are not enough jobs available to give each person a significant amount of work. Even when there are work opportunities, they rarely provide a meaningful work experience. In many departments of corrections, for instance, job development focuses on the day-to-day needs of the facility or provides a way to stem the tide of institutional idleness. Rarely are work assignments made that correspond to employment opportunities outside the institution.

To begin addressing this problem, corrections administrators need to coordinate work assignments with institutional job training programs. Training and work should be developed in tandem, so work assignments can make use of skills that a person in prison or jail receives as part of his or her institutional vocational training. (See Policy Statement 15, Education and Vocational Training, for more on training in a jail or prison setting.) As always, the programming plan provides the roadmap for a person's preparation for re-entry during his or her incarceration. Each programming plan should contemplate the individual's education, vocational training, and work assignment on a continuum, with an eye towards making him or her more employable in the community. (See Policy Statement 9, Development of Programming Plan, for more on creating a personalized plan for institutional programming.)

Example: Employment and Employability Skills Program, Correctional Services of Canada

Canada's Employment and Employability Skills Program starts at intake with a vocational assessment and a correctional plan. Inmates must have at least an eighth grade education to qualify, and they are assigned to work projects that help them develop competencies required for employment in the contemporary job market. Program participants are positioned to obtain short-term, generic certifications instead of more traditional, longer-term trades. The program represents a shift in focus away from solely operational needs of the institution because it considers the needs of the individual in designing work assignments.

In addition to focusing on individuals' skills, corrections administrators need to consider the existing job market. Administrators should partner with community-based workforce and employment services providers to identify gaps in the employment pool and create work programs to help fill those gaps. As administrators cultivate correctional industries or relationships with external companies, they can secure additional, more meaningful work opportunities and learn what skills would be transferable to the business community. By focusing on the needs of the community, corrections administrators can avoid channeling large numbers of prisoners into work assignments, such as furniture repair, for which there is little demand outside of the facility. At the same time, staff may develop new work programs such as computer repair and landscaping, which meet needs inside the prison and provide participants with useful, employable skills upon their re-entry to the community.

Example: Apprenticeship Program, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction currently has 58 apprenticeship programs in operation in the 30 correctional institutions in Ohio under the auspices of the Ohio Multi-Crafts Joint Apprenticeship Council. A statewide advisory committee makes recommendations for program selection or modification; the committee was formed to ensure that apprenticeship programming would offer skills that are marketable upon release.

Completions of the apprenticeship programs can take from 2,000 to 10,000 hours depending on the requirements of the program. Since many indivdiuals do not have enough time on their sentence to complete an entire apprenticeship program, the ODRC issues a 50 percent certificate that participants can take to a potential employer after release to show that some skills have been attained. To complicate the issue for corrections administrators, prison-based industries, which have traditionally provided work opportunities to people who are incarcerated, have recently faced accusations of competing unfairly with small and mid-sized community businesses. With this in mind, program administrators should consider alternatives to traditional correctional industries. These alternatives may include partnerships with private businesses that allow some work to be conducted within the correctional facility under contract with the private business. Targeting industry jobs to economic sectors that need labor can help alleviate criticism. Even in a depressed economy, certain economic sectors may experience labor shortages. Sometimes these jobs would not sustain an individual outside of the institution, but they can at least provide experience and skills to the prisoner that can aid in his or her search for a better position upon release.

Partnering with external companies will be vital to the success of prison work experience programs. Companies can set up small training shops inside the prison. Once released, the person can go to work for the larger plant on the outside. Businesses have an incentive to participate; the inmate is already trained and is able to begin working for the larger company immediately.

Example: Apprenticeship Programs, North Carolina Department of Labor and Department of Corrections

The Department of Labor coordinates apprenticeship programs through which North Carolina residents can earn certification in skilled industries. Apprenticeship programs are established by private employers or under the sponsorship of joint labor-management committees. Through coordination between the Department of Labor and the Department of Corrections, prisoners are enrolled in training and able to gain work experience in such areas as printing and construction/engineering.