NIC Transition and Offender Workforce Development Bulletin
“This bulletin highlights the ways career resource centers are being used in jails , prisons, and community supervision offices to improve the long-term employment prospects of offenders” (p.1). Sections of this publication include: common elements of career resource centers; getting started; working with inmate career clerks; building community ties; role of assessment in career resource centers; technology resources; finding champions and overcoming resistance; and future directions. Also included is a DVD with additional material. Resources contained on the DVD are: a PDF version of the bulletin; video interviews with many of the practitioners features in the bulletin; the CareerZone program; reentry guides from federal, state, and local correctional facilities; the Veterans Incarcerated Employability Workshop; a life-skills curriculum; virtual tours of career resource centers; links to Internet resources that promote the development of career resource centers; and career development documents that can be distributed to the inmate population.
This document highlights Vermont’s Workforce Development Program. Male participants that successfully completed the program lowered their reincarceration rate from 74% to 59% at six months following release, females lowered their rate from 63% to 38%. Topics discussed include:
- Creating a unique workforce culture
- Habits of Mind curriculum
- Workplace application
- Evidence of effectiveness
- Program replication
- Future of the program
- Program costs
