Last July, 15 women doing time at Folsom prison graduated from educational programs ranging from high school diplomas to pouring concrete on construction sites. The program is a part of California Prison Industry Authority’s (Cal-PIA) Career Technical Education Pre-Apprenticeship Program.
In addition to learning theses skills, the women may be the first offender rehabilitation program in the nation to collaborate with trade unions to learn masonry, work jackhammers, and in the word of a Cal-PIA representative, to “do everything,” reports the Folsom Telegraph.
“Programs like this offer stability, confidence in [women’s] ability to do non-traditional work and sustainability”
The result of this cooperation is a group of incarcerated women who have learned to make the best of bad situations, according to the report. For example, only a few years ago, the Folsom Women’s Facility was just a collection of vacant buildings, but under the oversight and tutelage of professionals in the construction industry, the women of Cal-PIA transformed those wasted buildings into a women’s prison.
Commenting on the program, Folsom Women’s Facility Warden Robin Harrington said, “Programs like this offer stability, confidence in [women’s] ability to do non-traditional work and sustainability so they become contributors to society … rather than takers…” This highlights another way the women in Cal-PIA’s construction program have made the best of bad situations.
These women have taken their first steps to better lives that, before, lacked opportunities, according to Cal-PIA officials.
Reprinted with permission
