Interns Visit Facilities
Metro Reentry
Program Graduation
Chili Cook Offf
On July 18, Metro Reentry Facility hosted their first Program Completion Graduation. Seventy-two returning citizens received certificates for completing the 12-month program and many of the 99 volunteer organizations representatives were in attendance.
As a summer intern with the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC), I have gotten to experience many cool things with my peers. We work a maximum of 29 hours a week and have a very flexible schedule to accommodate our extracurricular and family activities. There are 17 different departments that we each work in daily; however, throughout the summer we would come together as a group to visit different facilities.
Many teenagers have never been inside a prison before, but we were provided an opportunity to visit three facilities this summer, which were all unique. On our first facility tour, we went to Georgia State Prison (GSP) and visited the farm at Rogers SP. GSP is very rich in history which made for an interesting tour, where we were able to see news clippings and signed photos from movie stars from the set of The Longest Yard starring Burt Reynolds. At the farm, we saw many animals that the farm raises, and the products produced there.
Our next visit was to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, which has many different missions including housing new inmates that are coming into the prison and inmates who are high profile/risk. Our third and final tour was at Pulaski State Prison, which is a women's facility. While we were there we got to tour their dog training and equine rescue programs, which were interesting.
As an intern, I feel as though we have learned so much. We would not have gained the same knowledge and experience that we did working a regular summer job. Not only did we get to do tours as a group, but most of us also did separate tours/visits within our department. Every individual intern's experience was different because we all worked in different departments. This internship has truly helped us grow as people, and we have valuable skills and knowledge that we can carry with us forever.
Story by Trinity Stokes| [email protected]