NWTC Service-Learning and Civic Engagement 2018-2019 | Page 14

JUSTICE
INCARCERATION BASED LEARNING
Local inmates get a second
chance through education.
Over the course of 14 weeks, inmates
at Sanger B. Powers Correctional
Center in Oneida have the opportunity
to train for life and careers beyond
their sentence. The 14-credit technical
training program at Northeast Wisconsin
Technical College provides certification
in Industrial Maintenance and thus
far has been a huge success.
In 2018 the program graduated eleven
inmates from Sanger B. Powers Correctional
Center, a minimum-security facility, each
of which being hired post-incarceration
at an average wage of $18 an hour. The
second cohort graduated eleven more
inmates from the program who are highly
optimistic about the same prospect.
Of the 24,000 people in DOC custody,
most of them will return to our
communities. When prisoners in the
United States are released, they often
face an environment that is challenging
and actively deters them from becoming
productive members of society.
According to Jeff Rafn, President of
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College “In 14
weeks we teach them industrial maintenance,
I don’t know what they did or how they
got in trouble, but I do know, unless they
have the ability to get a job and support
themselves when they leave here, they are
just going to be back in trouble again.”
William Haigh, a program graduate of the
14-week program, is excited about what the
future holds. “Being able to take advantage
of what they have to offer has been a great
help in myself esteem and thinking, ‘Hey I
can do this when I get out. Life isn’t over.
It’s not the end of the world, it’s a hiccup
in life and we can move on from this,”
The program is funded by the Wisconsin
Department of Corrections, and
after the initial success Governor
Tony Evers has signed into budget
an increased amount of funding for
these efforts by almost $1 million.
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