Think flexibly.  Strive for accuracy.  Find humor.  These are just some of the 16 "habits of mind" that inmates in the Vermont Department of Corrections' new Workforce Development Program are being encouraged to form.  By helping offenders develop healthy approaches to situations they will face after they are released from prison, corrections officials in Vermont hope to reduce recidivism rates by 25 percent over a three-year period.   

The Workforce Development Program is a collaboration between the DOC, the Vermont Offender Workforce Program and the Community High School of Vermont, which provides education to inmates.  Together, these three entities hope to shift inmates' thinking patterns so they will become productive citizens who can sustain themselves once they re-enter the community. 

"We're bringing together education professionals, corrections professionals and industries professionals to work collaboratively to create a common product: a tax-paying citizen," said John Gorczyk, manager of the program's three-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Vermont DOC is one of 13 agencies that received the federal Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners grant in 2003.  The Workforce Development Program emerged out of that funding and is slated for implementation in two Vermont correctional facilities - in Windsor and St. Albans - by the end of the year.  It has been up-and-running at a third prison in Newport since October.

Using assessment tools like the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the Level of Service Inventory - Revised (LSI-R), the Workforce Development Program targets offenders who have a moderate to high risk of reoffense and a poor employment history.

"[We're] selecting individuals who have been fired, haven't held down a job for a full year or [who] are frequently unemployed," said Gorczyk.

The goal of the program is to help offenders develop a stronger work ethic through educational and vocational programming.  During classes that are held two days each week, the inmates learn about the 16 "habits of mind" that will, hopefully, shift their mindset towards employment and life, in general.  The offenders also work each day for Vermont Correctional Industries (VCI), which gives them an opportunity to apply the new habits of thinking that they are developing through their instruction from the Community High School of Vermont.

According to Gorczyk, there is an explicit, written curriculum focused on 16 "habits of mind," which include, being persistent, questioning and posing problems and thinking and communicating clearly.

In the Newport and St. Albans facilities where the program is being offered, inmates live together in a separate unit so that they can fully embrace the new habits they are trying to develop.  In these living units, inmates have community meetings, Gorczyk said, and the offenders have some degree of self-governance, in terms of how they want their "habits of mind" community to function. 

"In order to support behavioral change, it needs to be going on in all dimensions of the individual's life," Gorczyk said.  "We're addressing common issues here, at home in the living unit, at work and in school."

In addition, Gorczyk said, all employees working in these Workforce Development Program units are trained in the "habits of mind" so that they can support the inmates in the rehabilitative process.

At the Windsor facility, which houses female inmates, the program is run a bit differently, according to Gorczyk.  There, program participants do not live in a separate unit.  Instead, all staff members at the facility, both uniformed and civilian, are trained to work with inmates who are part of the Workforce Development program.

Another difference between the male and female programs is that, at the male facilities, inmates typically enter the program 12 to 18 months before their release.  In contrast, the women's program accepts inmates with as little time left to serve as three months, which is how long it takes to complete the "habits of mind curriculum," Gorczyk said.

At each prison, inmates in the Workforce Development Program work for VCI in different fields.  At Newport, offenders make cased goods and furniture, Gorczyk said.  At St. Albans, they work in a graphics arts/ print shop and at Windsor, the female offenders make signs and license plates, he added.

Hiring these inmates who have bad track records with employment to make these products, which keep the self-sustaining VCI in business, is somewhat of a gamble for VCI, Gorczyk said.

"It's a huge transition for VCI, which, traditionally, across the country, I believe [correctional industries programs] usually screen for those inmates who already have the skills needed to do whatever the tasks are.  They usually hire the cream [of the crop]," Gorczyk said.  "We're fundamentally turning the Vermont Correctional Industries into a treatment program or a rehabilitative program [and] it historically hasn't been."

Beyond the development of specific skills while working for VCI, Gorczyk said, more importantly, the knowledge inmates gain has more to do with the habits of mind and how to succeed in a work environment.

"[The Workforce Development Program] correlates so well with what we hear from private sector employers as to what they are looking for in hires," Gorczyk said.  "There's a general recognition that they don't really focus on whether of not the individual has the specific skills [to do the job]," he said.  "What they need are people who know how to think clearly, are flexible, can work well with others, know how to listen and [can] communicate clearly."

Those are all "habits of mind" that are covered in The Workforce Development Program's curriculum, Gorczyk said. 

With the program in its infancy in Newport and about to kick off in Windsor, Gorczyk is confident that, because it is such a strongly integrated program, over three-years, the Workforce Development Program will succeed in helping to prepare inmates for their transition back into society and lowering recidivism rates.

"It's not something that's happening in a room a couple of hours a day or even [just] in a living unit," Gorczyk said.  "It's integrating all aspects of the inmate's experience into the program.  In that sense, it's not like a program at all," he said.  "I think if we can pull that off, it will be a very, very worthwhile research demonstration project."

Resources:

Gorczyk (802) 241-2272 or johng@doc.state.vt.us