NIC Provides Practitioners Skills to Help Offenders with Re-Entry

• NCJ Number: 201662
• Journal: Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 65 Issue: 5 Dated: August 2003 Pages: 42-45
• Author(s): Shelly Morelock; Melissa Houston
• Date Published: August 2003
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article offers a description of the National Institute of Corrections’ (NIC) Offender Workshop Development Specialist training program and presents the applicability of the training course to actual practice in different States.

Abstract

One of the main goals of NIC’s Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement is to provide training that develops staff competency in working with adult offenders and ex-offenders who seek help with job training, placement, retention, advancement, and career options. NIC’s Offender Workshop Development Specialist training program focuses specifically on providing the skills necessary to help adult offenders and ex-offenders with employment, retention, and career advancement issues. The training program involves 160 hours of three blocks of instruction, with each block spanning 4.5 days. The program is designed for a six person team and provides training not only in terms of developing competency, but also trains the teams to provide training themselves in their local jurisdictions. Each team prepares a plan for implementing employment training in their home State. The remainder of the article discusses how each team applied the knowledge from the training course to their home State. Summaries are provided for the Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Washington teams. By describing how each team applied their training in their own jurisdictions, the article shows the impact of the training course to actual practice. One example from Vermont shows how the team who received the NIC training held a statewide conference and then created a work force development program that combined a high school diploma and GED preparation with vocational training, work experience, and job placement services. Contact information for NIC’s Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement is provided.