After participating in the Montgomery County Community Corrections (MCCC) Internship Program, students don't just leave with hands-on experience and college credit; they leave with a new grasp of corrections. And frequently, they don't end up leaving at all.

“A good half of our full-time staff have served as interns at one point or another,” says James Shannon, Pre-Release Program Manager for Personnel and Budget. “In fact, our last warden was an intern herself. And while this was designed for educational purposes, certainly, it's also a major recruitment program for us.”

The MCCC's Pre-Release Center, located in Rockview Maryland, has offered an internship for college students interested in corrections since 1975. Today, the program has merged its paid and academic programs, and offers a customized curriculum that is geared towards students in many different majors. Now, it gives students the chance to help offenders prepare for their return to the community.

“We try to do a great job of managing the placement of our interns, and instilling the idea of rehabilitation in their work,” Shannon says. “They are going to see some crucial factors at work here: custody and security. They will spend time supervising in our work release program. Some interns will be assigned to the housing units, and they will help our inmates as they transition back into society.”

Beyond customizing the internship to accommodate the focus of each student, officials at MCCC are also dedicated to instilling a philosophy of rehabilitation. The MCCC internship is so forward-thinking that some students travel across the country to participate in the program.  

“Our focus is on re-entry, not guarding and watching,” Shannon says. “We're pretty set on having re-entry as our main function. We want to help people with substance abuse issues; we want interns that see beyond guarding offenders. We want people that are dedicated to rehabilitation because that will be highlighted during every shift. And we're really trying to create a culture, an educational culture, for these interns.”

A Full Schedule of Experience

During their shifts at MCCC, most interns will start at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, depending on their class schedules. Most participants work in five hour shifts, five nights per week. Each intern checks-in with their assigned unit to find out what needs to be done that day. According to Shannon, interns should expect to spend a lot of time learning the ropes of the rehabilitation process.

“Our interns do the very things expected from employees on a routine basis,” Shannon says. “They take urine samples from offenders; if there is a staff training session, they are invited and encouraged to participate. Some interns might be assigned a county vehicle and they will spend their night going around to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, to make sure that inmates are there.”

In addition to these various responsibilities, psychology interns will have the experience of sitting in on counseling sessions, re-entry sessions and planning sessions which prepare inmates for release. Interns also have the chance to participate in cognitive behavioral sessions and counseling, which help inmates get to the bottom of any personal issues they might have before they are released.

“Our students are involved,” Shannon says. “They are truly working with hands-on situations. And if they are interested in certain programs – such as women's groups or AA, specifically – we allow them to work very closely with inmates involved in those groups. That furthers the customization of the program, and allows them to learn more about something they are interested in.”

Rehabilitation and Beyond

As part of that customization, interns also have the chance to do clerical work for the facility and ensure the proper circulation of court documents. And by becoming a part of the re-entry process on every level, interns have the opportunity to really offer support to offenders.

“A lot of this program is very focused on support, despite all of the other elements,” Shannon says.

“If a person is being released and they need clothes, you don't want to send them to a store alone. So we send an intern to go with them, just to help them get used to these kinds of everyday things that they will have to deal with.”

Shannon says the program has received great feedback from most interns, many of whom have found employment at the Pre-Release Center. Since the merging of the paid and academic programs, students are also happy to receive a reward for their hard work.

“Students enjoy the challenge,” says Shannon. “This looks great on resumes. We do exit interviews with our interns and we find ourselves writing a lot of recommendations as these students go on. And we don't have a problem with paying our interns for their work.”

While the pay is an added bonus for college students, who are usually paid minimum wage, the internship is still intensive. Additionally, the interns provide a new perspective for the Pre-Release facility. Shannon says many of the interns suggest new ideas and programs that continue to make the MCCC's approach to rehabilitation fresh and cutting edge. And beyond listening to the suggestions of interns, Shannon says the program is also successful because it keeps the same goal in mind, no matter what.

“We want to offer a broad education – and not just to interns, but to staff too,” Shannon says. “We want to serve the students the best we can, and we realize that we have to teach staff as well as you teach students. And when we find an intern that fits here, and understands our goal of rehabilitation, that's when we can begin to develop a future with them.”

Resources:

Internship Information:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgtmpl.asp?
url=/content/docr/MCDC/DOCR-INTERN.asp