James River Correctional Center helps inmates join workforce

Nov. 8—JAMESTOWN — The James River Correctional Center has been providing resources to give inmates the skills needed to join the workforce once they are released.

JRCC Warden Chad Pringle said giving inmates the knowledge on how to keep a stable job makes a difference for them after they are released from the facility. If they don't have a job, they could easily fall back into their old unhealthy habits, he said.

The JRCC will help inmates get a GED if they don't have a high school diploma. To work any jobs in the correctional center, inmates need to have a GED or high school diploma, said Melissa Bossingham, education principal for JRCC and the James River Minimum Unit.

"I believe that the thinking behind that is kind of paired into the real world," she said. "If you get your education, you can advance into something that is a little more in depth and specific. ... Get your education first and then you can move onto something more advanced."

Bossingham said around 60 of the approximately 480 inmates don't have a GED or high school diploma.

"If they don't have a GED, when they get here, we ultimately expect them to go through the program and earn that," Pringle said.

Bossingham said on average the JRCC staff wants inmates to earn a GED in about 18 months.

"Some guys come to us and they speed through and they are done in two months," she said. "Others, it may take a little longer depending on their motivation, dedication, aptitude."

Having the GED or high school diploma and compliant behavior opens up other opportunities for inmates to get jobs within Roughrider Industries, a self-funded industry for the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Each correctional center in the state has an industry.

"We actually have a sewing industry here, upholstery, garbage bags and the commissary or canteen," said Melissia Kleven, manager of Roughrider Industries, adding that parks, coveralls and underwear are also made at JRCC. "We teach them warehousing, computer skills. We kind of have a CAD (computer-aided design) program for fabric. It makes patterns and things like that so we're trying to bring some technical with it but most of it is just the soft skills of getting up, coming to work, reporting to work. RoughRider is self funded, so fortunately we still have to produce goods to get to the community or the customers."

Pringle said there are many jobs throughout JRCC but Roughrider Industries is the most involved in replicating real-life work.

"There's jobs in the kitchen, jobs in laundry, janitorial jobs," he said. "We have enough jobs for about two-thirds of our guys. They have to do well to earn their way to get to Roughrider is the theme. We are pushing them in that direction."

Brandi Netolicky, deputy warden at JRCC, said inmates start with smaller jobs with less pay and work their way up to better jobs with more pay.

"The longer that they stay in an institutional job, the more they get paid, so it's showing them that longevity at their job is important," she said. "Then they obviously work up to Roughrider where they get paid the most."

Pringle said some inmates make around $2 to $3 per day but the ones working for Roughrider Industries earn around $12 a day. Kleven said most inmates who have worked for Roughrider Industries longer than six months earn around $1.50 per hour but some even make about $2 per hour.

Now, Kleven said more employers in the state are looking to hire inmates working for Roughrider Industries at JRCC.

"We are getting more and more that are calling and saying, 'Hey, do you have anybody that you can send to us,'" she said.

Pringle said it is up to the inmates to volunteer and enroll in the programs that are offered.

"The majority of the guys getting out want to be successful and I think when they find an opportunity like this that people are there to help, many take advantage of it," he said.

The James River Correctional Center and Job Service North Dakota are teaming up to implement the Cognitive Behavioral Interventions Employment for Adults Program, a 33-session course that helps improve inmates' work skills, Bossingham. She said the course improves skills such as communicating with a supervisor in a healthy way when there are disagreements and how to remain employed.

"If they're at employment and let's just say they don't get along with their supervisor, people are quick and not just incarcerated adults but society pretty much in general, they are very quick to just quit their job, go get another one or not work for awhile, and we are trying to break that pattern," she said.

The Cognitive Behavioral Interventions Employment for Adults Program will be beneficial for employers in the community, said Danica Chaput, workforce manager for Job Service North Dakota's Jamestown office. She said there has been a shortfall of workers in the Jamestown area.

Bossingham said four people are trained to offer courses through the Cognitive Behavioral Interventions Employment for Adults Program. Up to 40 individuals could be enrolled at one time if four courses are offered simultaneously.

Chaput said more employers are open to hiring individuals who have been incarcerated.

Job Service North Dakota and JRCC also work together to offer the Job Placement Pilot Program to inmates.

The Job Placement Pilot Program offers benefits to eligible individuals and helps employers by reducing barriers and building bridges to employment for people with criminal records, according to Job Service North Dakota. Individuals enrolled in the program have access to an array of employment services including individual consultation, access to training programs and support services.

Employers also benefit from eligible individuals being enrolled in the Job Placement Pilot Program because it helps remove barriers to employment, according to Job Service North Dakota. Benefits for eligible individuals include funding for transportation, assistance with housing, providing required uniforms and job readiness tools, help with licensing fees and referring individuals to needed resources.

Chaput also said Job Service North Dakota has been helping inmates with resume writing and job interviewing skills.

"Even if they don't walk out the door with that resume, they are able to come in, we can get them started, print the things off, get everything rolling," she said.

Netolicky said doing mock job interviews helps prepare inmates when they are released on how to talk about being incarcerated to employers.

"These classes that they are going through helps them through their struggles and even just giving an interview while they are in prison to have a job to go to," she said. "Getting out it's stressful finding a home and having money, it just provides that structure for them."

Cody Marvig, case manager at JRCC, said Job Service North Dakota helped the correctional center get iPads that have access to the Job Service and other educational websites that are preapproved.

"Our ultimate goal for that ... is they go do the job searching, find one or two jobs that they want to apply for and then they go back to the case manager and they work with the case manager to actually apply online because those tablets won't let you go to an external website to actually go apply for them and anything like that," he said.

Chaput said there's an additional layer of training under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act that works with individuals who may have been incarcerated or in other situations where they can get training in in-demand occupations and then they too can be better skilled at what they need to do in the workforce and what those openings are.

She also said the Federal Bonding Program helps employers that are open to hiring individuals who were formerly incarcerated and other at-risk job seekers but their insurance doesn't allow that to happen.

The Federal Bonding Program was established in 1966 to provide Fidelity bonds that protect employers against employee fraud and dishonesty for "at-risk," hard-to-place job seekers, according to a handout from Job Service. The bonds cover the first six months of employment at no cost to the job applicant or the employer.

"There is also a program for a state tax credit, through WATC, which is the Workforce Opportunity Tax Credit," Chaput said. "That is another way that can assist the employers to get a little extra back as well as for maybe taking that chance or investing in that person."

Marvig said the correctional center also helps by holding virtual job fairs in the facility for inmates in JRCC and the James River Minimum Unit. He said JRCC staff also takes individual from the James River Minimum Unit to job fairs in Fargo or Bismarck.

He also said JRCC works with North Dakota Vocational Rehabilitation to help individuals with disabilities find jobs.

"They can help with paying for clothes, work clothes, boots, stuff like that," he said.

Inmate Abdon Sanchez said it's "wonderful" that programs are available to help inmates join the workforce once they are released. He said he went to prison somewhere else but classes weren't offered and no one helped place inmates into the workforce.

"It was just throw you right back into the world," he said. "Basically, you are trying to make up where you were at before. You basically go back to your old ways."

Inmate Justin Wood agreed. He said in Louisiana, where he previously spent time, programs aren't offered to help place inmates into the workforce.

He said the Job Placement Pilot Program helps find items such as work boots, clothing and transportation.

"They give you all kinds of ways to succeed when you get out instead of going back to stealing or selling drugs like you was doing before," he said.

Sanches and Wood both will be released from JRCC soon.

Wood said he is already approve for rent assistance and will look for his own place.

"If they would just let me out the door, I would just live with old friends and stuff and probably go back to my old lifestyle," he said. "It's kind of cool that I got this rent help so I can go my own way and actually have different avenues to take and I don't have to go back to my old way."

Sanchez said he will search for any higher-paying job, including in construction.

Sanchez said he would recommend to inmates to take advantage of the programs that are offered at JRCC.

"If you are here, you might as well make the best of it and try to be a better person," he said. " ... If you are here and you need it, take advantage of it."