U.S. prisons have long been viewed as economic engines -- churning out jobs for those who build them, those who guard, feed and care for the prisoners, and those who live there as inmates making license plates or building roads.
But now, with employers scrambling to fill jobs in the tightest U.S. labor market in 30 years, private sector firms are looking behind prison bars for workers.
'Once you get past that you're in a prison, it's pretty much a standard job interview situation,' said Don Heenan, director of operations for 28 Midas muffler shops in New England. He was one of several private employers who showed up for a recent job fair at the Plymouth Correctional Facility in Massachusetts.
The medium-security prison can house up to 1,600 male inmates. Job interviews are held with men who have 60 days or less left before they are to be released, explained Susan Adams, who helped create the program.
Most are incarcerated for lesser crimes such as burglary or shoplifting.
Adams' boss, Plymouth County Sheriff Charles DeCas, who runs the prison, said a convict returning to the streets 'had a stark but simple choice: Either get a job and support himself or resort again to a life of crime. There is no third way. It's either taxpayer or tax burden.'
Adams said she got the idea for a job fair this year after going to a meeting of employment specialists from other prisons around the country. Similar programs have been underway for several years in Iowa, Ohio, New York and North Carolina.
Adams said about 80 inmates participated in Massachusetts' first such job fair. 'It ranged from those who had never been employed before to skilled mechanics and craftsmen.'
Plymouth officials developed a job readiness course for the inmates where 'they learned to market themselves. They developed resumes, had mock one-on-one job interviews, and those were videotaped so they could study them,' Adams said.
Her next task was getting employers actually to come to the prison to interview the inmates.
For Heenan, who has a hard time finding qualified workers in the tight New England job market, the fair was 'definitely worth it. I found three possible candidates. We just have to wait now for them to get out.'