Jessica Blake struggled with addiction for 20 years. She spent time in prison, tried again to get her life on track, and ended up behind bars again.
“We go through life making choices, not taking into consideration the consequences that they may bring or how they may affect our families,” she said.
But Blake says her recent stay at the Newton County jail will be her last behind bars. She is one of nine women to complete a welding training program, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. only for female inmates. Wearing a cap and gown over her jail-issued uniform, Blake spoke recently at a graduation ceremony for the nine women who completed the intense, 80 hours of training.
“This program is the door I’ve been waiting for patiently,” Blake said. “The skills I have learned during the past two weeks will forever change my future. With hard work, determination, practice, and persistence, there is no doubt in my mind God will give me the position I’ve strived so hard to achieve.”
Many metro Atlanta jails offer vocational training with the goal of helping inmates turn their lives around. Though the pandemic brought most jail programs to a halt, several sheriff’s offices have restarted training inmates for a successful life beyond cells. From landscaping and animal training, and cosmetology to creative writing, local inmates have opportunities to better themselves through vocational training, in addition to programs to help fight addiction and earn high school diplomas.
Credit: Newton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Newton County Sheriff's Office
“There is a perception or belief that when people break the law, we should lock them up and throw away the key,” Henry County Sheriff Reginald Scandrett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But he’s made it part of his job to shift that mindset, Scandrett said.
“The top goal on my list has been recidivism,” he said.
According to Rehabilitation Enables Dreams, a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, the incarceration rate in Georgia is 31% higher than the national average. In Georgia, according to RED, the recidivism rate is nearly 50%.
Atlanta-area sheriffs would like to end return offenders coming back to jails. But many people don’t know how to end the cycle, Scandrett said.
Out of the 13,000 people booked into the Henry jail each year, nearly half don’t have a high school diploma or its equivalent, the sheriff said. Many have never had opportunities for education and job training, he said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“We try to talk to them about things that they have not experienced to open their minds to a higher level of education,” Scandrett said. “We’re seeing consistently light bulbs coming on with some of these inmates that they have not had before.”
Not only can the inmates get vocational training, but the sheriff’s office partners with companies that need workers and offer jobs once they are out of jail. Instead of leaving jail with a likelihood of reoffending, the inmates can become productive members of the community, helping to reduce crime, Scandrett said.
But he admits it’s not always easy to convince those who’ve had run-ins with law enforcement to trust the process. And Scandrett has to instill in his deputies the importance of their roles in providing guidance.
Lisa Gautreaux, president and CEO of Action Inc., said her organization has long had the goal of training women for jobs typically considered “man’s work,” she told inmates in Newton County. Her organization’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty through various education programs.
Her company has partnered with Newton Sheriff Ezell Brown and his staff to train inmates, including the recent women’s welding program. The partnership has been a success, she said. But it’s the inmates who are the true success stories, Gautreaux said.
“What I see before me today are confident, extraordinary, motivated, and successful women,” Gautreaux told the welding graduates. “And you know that there is an incredible path before you, a path of success, and you know what it takes to run with it. It’s all up to you.”
Brown said he is a product of vocational education, and as a sheriff, he wants to see everyone succeed — even repeat offenders who return to his jail.
“Now you can put the past behind you,” he told the inmate graduates. “You’re no longer defined by this place. You have the skills, you have the technique to move on and be what you have trained to be. Every door is open, you just have to enter that door.”
Donna Marie Blackstock, a mother and grandmother, had been in Brown’s jail since November. Now that she has completed the welding program as an inmate, she plans to enroll in more welding classes. She was released from jail early this month.
“It’s the best chance I’ve ever had in my life,” she said.
The nine recent graduates vowed to stay in touch after all are released from jail, forever bonded by what they called life-changing training.
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Cassidi Porter said during the graduation ceremony. “We are not the clothes we are wearing.”
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