Feb. 11—DANVILLE — A new mechatronics program between Danville Area Community College and the Danville Correctional Center is providing hands-on mechanical and technology training for individuals in custody.

Terri Cummings, dean of business and technology at DACC, McKenna Allison, director of educational programs, Department of Corrections, and Shane Moncrief, mechatronics instructor, said there are many benefits of the new program that started in January at the prison.

Mechatronics is a multi-disciplinary field that refers to the skill sets needed in the contemporary and advanced automated and manufacturing industry. The new Department of Corrections mechatronics certificate program will prepare students to support an operations team in the maintenance of facility production equipment. The students will install, troubleshoot and repair mechanical systems, control subsystems and machinery, Moncrief said.

"Basically, it's kind of like a mix in between of regular maintenance like in a factory, compared to maybe a little bit of robotics maintenance and also automation lines that would run the whole factory," Moncrief said.

With industry partners in the area, many have or are going to robotics, Cummings said, about this being around for a while and working toward that.

Moncrief said the biggest thing from the time the students start to the time they end, is how do they troubleshoot a problem. That can be as little as trying to fix a bicycle tire to a robotics machine. The students will be taught a six-step process on how to troubleshoot something.

Allison said classes started Jan. 9 and they have 11 students. Moncrief was hired in September and was sent for training on the equipment.

"So, it's taken a lot of work to get equipment and tools and everything inside of the facility," Allison said about the nice slow process of getting everything in order at the prison.

Moncrief said there will be seven mechatronics courses. One that has finished is intro to maintenance or mechanical diagnosis. Others will involve OSHA, electrical diagnosis and repair, and pneumatics and hydraulics. There will be about six months of classes.

The students started off with safety requirements. They went through hand tools and other tools used such as for auto or industrial mechanics. They also went into a little bit of electrical, lockout tagout and basics of maintenance for any type of automation factory, Moncrief said.

The hand-on processes for the program will prepare the students in possibly becoming technicians in the field and dealing with work orders. The classes have machines for the students to tinker with, and more equipment will be purchased to grow and improve the program.

DACC Contract

DACC has a contract to provide vocational education at the prison. DACC employees, including Allison and Moncrief, work inside the prison. Moncreif took classes at DACC to be a wind turbine technician and has worked at ThyssenKrupp and other factories.

"It's on a state-funded grant," Allison said. "We offer construction, automotive, now mechatronics, and then we also have a short 20-day kind of like reentry class or job preparedness class for our students who are within 90 days of release."

All four of those programs are contractual with the Department of Corrections.

Allison said they used to also have custodial maintenance.

The state started reevaluating their programs and what else could be added at the prisons. Welding was becoming more prevalent a few other facilities, so they still wanted something different.

Cummings said mechatronics is something this area sees people feed into from DACC.

Allison said they can safely have 15 students in each of the classes. They have access to many more people and they have tons of interest. There are about 50-60 correctional center students on the wait lists for each program.

In the education building at the correctional center, there are three bays for each program area. One is very large and split into two. Mechatronics and auto are in the large classroom. Another classroom is used for transfer courses and overflow and would be available for another vocational program. One last classroom is full of construction.

The students are full-time, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The construction program is 130 days, and auto is approximately 170 days. They are still ironing out mechatronics, but it looks like it will be about 150 to 180 days.

"Their lunch gets delivered and they hang out with us all day," Allison said of the students.

Through state policies to participate, the students need to get an eighth-grade average score on their TABE score which is the Test of Adult Basic Education. In addition to getting at least an 8 on that test, they also need to have a GED or high school diploma and that is sent to the DACC campus.

"They are treated just like our students here," Allison said.

There are a wide range of ages for the students, all over the age of 18. The current range is 20 years old to 60 years old. Some are local, but a lot come from by Chicago or St. Louis and elsewhere.

Successes

"Our enrollments are based on their out dates. So, I need them to have enough time to complete the program," Allison said, adding that for auto she needs them to have about eight months of their prison sentence left.

She still needs to pick people who are close to their out dates. A lot of students have a 2025 out date.

"We want stuff to be fresh when they're getting out," Allison said. "Obviously we want to give someone who's going to be released soon the skills that can help them be successful compared to someone who's got another 20 years before they're leaving."

The students will get a mechatronics certificate from DACC at completion of the program of about eight courses.

On top of a college credential, the students will get an industry credential and an OSHA certification which hopefully, with the skills they learn, will make them more marketable for jobs, Cummings said.

The programs already have seen success stories.

"We do have a few students that will reach back out to their instructors," Allison said. "It was pretty cool, probably two weeks ago, we had an individual that had been in custody for a long time and when he came into custody, he spoke very little English. He actually started at the prison with his GED and completed his GED, and he eventually made it into some DACC classes. He went through our construction program, and we got him through our auto program. He also completed his associate degree with DACC."

She said when they gave him his associate degree, he was very emotional, thankful and appreciative for all the opportunities.

"A lot of our guys, we're giving them the skills to be successful, and get the industry skills and all that, but they're also getting so much more being in the classroom. They're getting the critical thinking skills; they're getting the social skills. They're stuck working with people they probably don't like, but now they're getting the opportunity to learn how to maneuver through those situations to be successful, and kind of change some of their tendencies. Where in the past, they may have reacted differently or handled things differently. But our instructors are able to not just give them the industry skills but also help with the social skills and the employability skills," Allison said.

She said there have been a few guys who are very successful in Chicago, and they participate heavily in the re-entry opportunities throughout the state. Five or six students who have taken the construction classes have been in flyers and pamphlets.

It's good to see those successes, she said.

Moncrief has students now who have taken classes and programming with DACC already, so they were prepared to be students.

The instructors won't have more than three classes throughout the day. Students get their lecture and lab times and time to work on homework and things.

They'll finish manufacturing 105 and hop into the next one. DACC provides a master syllabus for the classes. There are learning objectives.

Moncrief said they've pretty much started from scratch, but taking the program that DACC has used in the past. The old janitorial classroom was made their own at the prison. They hope to add pneumatic and hydraulic trainers to get more of those hands-on skills.

"Hands on is very important. In our opinion, you can't learn vocational education and courses by just reading a book or being talked to. You actually have to get in there and do that," Cummings said. "We work very well together to make sure all of that happens."

She said the Danville Correctional Center is a very program-heavy facility.

Allison said the students can get day-for-day good time off their sentence for coming to class and following all the rules.