By Matthew Call
The Capital Times
PORTAGE, Wisc. — Daniel Abbott is focused on a date 18 years from now. He’ll be 60 years old then and out of Wisconsin’s correctional facilities.
He figures he won’t be much use as a landscaper, construction worker or other physical laborer.
When 2025 rolls around and Abbott is able to get out of prison, he wants to be ready.
“When I get out, eventually, you got to have something to fall back on,” said Abbott, 42, a prisoner at Columbia Correctional Institution. “I want to do something so I don’t resort to stupidity when I get out.”
Abbott is in a training program at CCI to become part of a print shop that produces forms for state agencies and nonprofit groups.
The print shop jobs, which range from design to machine operation, are coveted in the state prison world, where many entry-level jobs can pay a few cents an hour.
If a prisoner gets to work on a press after going through the training program, he can be eligible for a 50-cent hourly wage and progress up to $1.
In comparison, custodial training - which also is offered at CCI - requires up to six months of training and pays 42 cents an hour.
The prison wage of a dollar doesn’t mean much to the outside world, but compared to 15 cents, it’s a way to succeed while serving time, said Emmett White, 36, originally of Chicago.
“You’re here to waste time; it’s up to you how you use it,” White said. “I talk to my mom and she’s always talking about how busy she is and I understand. I’m in prison and I don’t have enough hours in the day.”
When CCI was built more than 20 years ago, prison officials initiated a printing program that produces forms such as bike maps and park trail maps for state and nonprofit organizations, said Mark Terpening, a vocational printing instructor at CCI for the last 14 years. A truck travels from CCI to Madison and back each day carrying completed materials down and new assignments up.
CCI’s vocational printing training offers a diploma after completion, through Madison Area Technical College. CCI also offers diplomas in custodial and building services training.
Inmates must already have a high school diploma to be eligible for the printing training. Abbott and White are two of 15 inmates now participating in the 12- to 18-month program at CCI with the intention of moving on to a seven-week internship and then a job with Badger State Industries, which runs 15 industries within 11 correctional facilities.
“Even though you’re in here, you can still be of help,” Abbott said.
Abbott’s journey to CCI includes a conviction in a 2005 felony armed robbery case out of La Crosse County, according to the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system. Abbott said he was first sent to Dodge Correctional Institution, where he read about CCI’s unique printing program that gave him the opportunity to help his relatives.
In Portage, prisoners who’ve completed printing training and work for BSI produce one-sheet fliers and other forms used by state agencies, according to Terpening.
White, who was found guilty in a 1993 felony case of first-degree intentional homicide out of Milwaukee County, studied cosmetology at Green Bay Correctional Institution before learning of the graphic arts program at CCI and transferring there.
“If you don’t have support on the outside, you need to make an income in here, and they’re the highest-paying jobs,” White said. “You clock in, you clock out — it’s like any job on the street.”
Copyright 2007 The Capital Times