GREENUP INMATES WILL GET CHANCE TO LEARN TRADE

Program Aims To Prevent Repeat Offenders

GREENUP - Putting people in jail is part of the job for a judge.

Finding ways to turn offenders away from crime - and thus keep them out of
jail - is another.

Greenup Circuit Judge Lewis Nicholls is developing a federally funded
program to lower recidivism by teaching inmates a trade.

Through a Georgia company that operates vocational training schools,
Nicholls hopes to have the first class of inmates started sometime this winter.

"A lot of the people who come through court are kids who drop out of school
and have no skills," said Nicholls.

Putting them through a vocational course will make them employable once
they get out of jail, he said. His plan is to offer probation following
satisfactory completion of the program.

The 12-week course will include carpentry, electrical wiring, welding,
plumbing and computer maintenance.

Eligible prisoners will be those who already have been convicted of a
lesser felony, Nicholls said.

Prisoners who have committed violent crimes probably won't be eligible, and
those who have committed major crimes for which they'll be serving long
terms won't need training for the outside world, he said.

Need and motivation are keys, he said. "We're looking at people who don't
have any skills, who've never been to vocational school. We also prefer
people who are going to get out and who appear to be sufficiently motivated."

The Center for Industry and Technology in Atlanta will provide the
training. The company already operates a vocational program in Ironton,
although not for inmates, said Doug Smith, the company's administrator.

The company operates an inmate vocational program in the Atlanta area, said
Smith, a former Ironton resident.

The Atlanta program, which teaches welding, boasts an 85 percent placement
average with similar retention rates, he said.

Federal Workforce Development Act grant funding will be channeled through
the FIVCO Area Development District, said Tom Saylor, the district's
assistant director for human resources.

The grant already provides money for several training programs in the area,
Saylor said.

The training costs $3,900 per inmate, Saylor said.

Of that, the grant will pay $2,900 and the inmate will pay the other
$1,000, Nicholls said.

"The defendants should have to pay part of the freight on it so they'll
have an investment in it," he said.

The program was first envisioned as part of the drug court Nicholls has
been working for more than a year to organize.

It was the brainchild of Steve Thompson, a member of the drug court team.

Thompson, courthouse maintenance supervisor, works with inmates through the
county's work-release program for low-level offenders.

The idea occurred to him when he heard about a local project of Habitat for
Humanity, the non-profit organization that helps low-income people build
and buy their own homes, Thompson said.

His original thought was to get inmates schooling and then guide them into
building Habitat homes.

"If they could end up getting a job out of this and a home, that would be
awesome, wouldn't it?" Thompson said.

Whether the inmates will get involved in the Habitat program hasn't been
settled yet, but one of their instructors will be Lew Dunn, who is Habitat
for Humanity's Ashland director.

He's an instructor for the Center for Industry and Technology's Ironton
program and has high hopes for the inmate classes.

"This will give them some self-esteem and skills that are marketable," he
said. "After they pass the class I teach, they can go right to work for a
contractor," he said.

To get in the Habitat program as a potential homeowner, the inmates would
have to fulfill the same requirements as any other applicant, Dunn said.

However, if volunteering on a Habitat project were part of an inmate's
probation, the work would provide them on-the-job experience, he said.

The training will be at a building near the jail. The inmates involved
won't be an escape risk, said Jailer Jim Womack.

The program is likely to succeed if the inmates are screened effectively,
Womack said.

"A lot of people are in jail because they don't have a trade," Womack said.
"Anyone who wants a better life for themselves can have one in they can
learn a trade."