School's out for the summer, but, next fall, inmates at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will be back in the classroom and the kitchen again, honing their hospitality skills.

USDB's hospitality program, after taking a hiatus in the late 90s, was revived at the military prison in 2001.  In May, it graduated 19 inmates who now have a certificate from Johnson County Community College (JCCC) that will help them get a job in the food and beverage industry.

"We are teaching them real, hard job skills that they can immediately use when they leave the Disciplinary Barracks," said program instructor Jerry Marcellus.  "Our program prepares them to [get] entry-level management jobs in the food service industry."   

Marcellus, who has taught the class for the past three years, said that the inmates at the USDB are excited about learning a new set of skills.

"I have taught high school and I have taught at the community college level," Marcellus said.  "I would say, overall, the students at the barracks show greater interest [in the program].  They take it a lot more seriously and they spend more time preparing for class."

Making a Living in the Hospitality Industry

According to Dan Knutson, Acting Director of Programs and Services at the USDB, the inmates invest in the program because they know that it will help them to earn a living when they are released from incarceration. 

"These guys are fairly motivated," Knutson said.  "They want to succeed because they want the skills and this is a good skill to have."

In fact, the program is so popular at the facility, that there is currently an 84-person waiting list to get in, Knutson said.  And that doesn't even include the 40-or-so inmates who are already enrolled for the fall semester, he said.

Once September rolls around, much like for regular community college students, classes will begin again for inmates at the USDB who are part of the two-year hospitality program. 

The practical side of the inmates' education takes place in an on-site training kitchen designated especially for this program that is complete with all the utensils they would need.

Although inmates have access to the tools of the trade, like knives, there are really no security concerns for the instructor, according to Knutson.

"We have a corrections [officer] that is in there while they are cooking and preparing meals in the kitchen," Knutson said.  "All of the knives are tethered to the tables."

In addition to securing the knives, the corrections officers take an inventory of everything in the kitchen before and after the inmates use the facility to ensure that nothing is missing, Knutson pointed out.

With these security procedures in place, Marcellus has never experienced any problems during his tenure there.

"I have always been very confident in there," Marcellus said.  "[The inmates] have never made me feel uncomfortable, not even slightly.  They're very receptive to what we're doing."

From the Kitchen to the Classroom

Aside from learning how to prepare food in the kitchen, there is also a classroom component to the hospitality program.  Inmates take courses that cover a broad range of topics and prepare inmates for various types of positions in the food and beverage industry.

"Our program is a lot more comprehensive than just cooking classes per se," said Marcellus.

During the course of the program, inmates learn how to understand and create budgets, price items, control losses, write purchase specifications, control costs, plan menus and prepare foods.  The program ends with an internship-type class in which inmates prepare weekly meals, from start to finish, for staff members at the facility. 

"The food management class is kind of the culmination of the whole program where they put everything together--their management skills and their food preparations skills," said Marcellus. 

One day each week, the inmates in this hands-on course design a menu, set the tables with fine linens, prepare a three-course meal, present and serve it to 40 guests and then clean-up after.

"The students do everything," said Marcellus, noting that different inmates are designated as managers each week and they are responsible for scheduling other inmates for jobs and overseeing the entire day.

Succeeding After Incarceration

This type of real-life experience prepares the inmates for the working world, where some program graduates are now very successful, according to Lindy Robinson, Assistant Dean of Hospitality Management at JCCC.

One former inmate is now a kitchen manager at a chain operation in Indiana, one is a sous chef at a large hotel in Chicago and another is a food and beverage manager for a company in New York, said Robinson.

She added that these are good skills for inmates to acquire because the food service industry is constantly expanding and always looking for more personnel.

"In 2003, with the economic downturn, our industry showed a 1.3 percent growth," Robinson said.  "Our projections are so strong; it's incredible.  Even with the economic downturn of the country, we are seeing strong growth, so, consequently, we need to have as many trained employees as we can get our hands on."

And the offenders at the USDB hope to capitalize on that.

Resources:

To contact Robinson or Marcellus, call (913) 469-8500