Grant to help inmates get jobs

Inmates at the Steele County Detention Center in Owatonna will soon have the opportunity to improve their work skills to be gainfully employed once they have completed their sentences.
Steele County is the recipient of a pilot program in Minnesota that will funnel a $1.4 million grant from Workforce Development Inc. of Olmsted County into the local jail. This particular program has never been offered in jails before. Officials at the local detention center are gearing up to begin implementing the two-year program in January.
The program will be geared to people who are incarcerated for more than 30 days, according to Cindy Fowler, the jail’s programs coordinator. Under the program, inmates would receive from 40 to 160 hours of training during their stay.
Some of the skills inmates would receive include resume writing and interviewing. The jail is also hoping to partner with Riverland Community College to utilize its education trailer for welding and carpentry skills. “We want them to be better prepared to get an industrial job,” said Anthony Buttera, jail administrator.
Fowler said the program would be strictly voluntary. However, jail personnel have a list of criteria and will approach selected prisoners in hopes of getting them engaged with the program. The jail will target low risk inmates who are serving time for minor assaults and drunk driving charges.
Buttera hopes the program will reduce recidivism by up to 25%. “We want to keep them out of jail and employed,” he said.
Added Fowler, “We hope we can get them better paying jobs and that they are be more stable and not come back (to jail).”
In the past, jail officials have noticed many inmates end up getting entry-level positions, but those kind of jobs can’t sustain them long term. “We hope to get them in a better position,” Buttera explained. He noted they hope to help inmates develop a stronger support system so they have connections on the outside once they leave jail.
Fowler said they hope to pair up the inmates with manufacturing companies in Owatonna. She pointed out many of them are offering positions in the $20 or more per hour range.
Through the program, the jail hopes to help at least 245 inmates over the next two years. Once they complete the program, they would receive a certification to let prospective employers know they have successfully done the training.
“It’s making the community better,” Buttera says. “They will be able to get up every day and go to a job,” he said.
Officials are also confident the program will help inmates become better role models for their children. “We are hopeful to get people going in the direction to teach their kids what is normal and what being productive looks like,” Buttera said. “We want them to be able to provide for their kids.”
Fowler stressed that the jail is all about rehabilitating versus keeping people locked up. She said in recent years detention officers have taken a different direction of what corrections is all about. “We want rehabilitation rather than just maintaining people for an extended period of time. We want to change the culture in the jail,” she added.
Buttera said the new program fits with the jail’s mission of reducing recidivism, forging positive role models and making people better than when they came in.
Both Fowler and Buttera hope to see this program extend beyond Steele County and get into other jails around the state.