The first five Daviess County Detention Center inmates of the Re-entry Success Program graduated Wednesday. The new program, which is a partnership among community businesses and local government, prepares the inmates for re-entering the workforce by providing skills training prior to their release. Another five students will now enter the program.
During the reception, the program graduates completed job interviews with different employers in the area including Sun Windows, UniFirst, AMICO and TTMA.
The program began in early July and included providing practical skills and exposing inmates to jobs.
“The one thing about this program is they have to be thinking beyond incarceration,” Jailer Art Maglinger said. “There’s a lot of value in this program. They have to be working toward a long-term goal.”
Maglinger said one member of the class was released from DCDC early and has already begun using the skills he developed in the program.
Recent graduate James Hagan said that he is very thankful for the program and for being able to prepare him for the life beyond the building. Hagan has been in DCDC since 2018 and is currently on track to be released in May 2023.
Even though he has almost 8 months until his potential release, Hagan said the classes will stick with him for the remainder of his time and beyond.
“It gave me an idea about the workforce. A lot of it I already knew, but there was a lot of stuff that since I graduated high school it’s been a long time, so it was refreshing,” Hagan said.
The next five program members will be enrolling in the coming weeks.
Inmates selected for the program have been classified community or minimum-level custody inmates. They are already assigned as inmate workers at DCDC. These inmates were viewed as ideal candidates for the program because their cases have been adjudicated and resolved. They are serving time for non-violent convictions (vs. inmates awaiting trial) which means they will likely be returning to the community in a matter of months.
Initial funding for the program is being provided by the City of Owensboro and the Daviess County Fiscal Court. Combined, they have committed funding to support participation of 40 inmates in the program. The cost of tuition is $3,500 per participant.
