By Graham Lee Brewer
News OK
OKLAHOMA CITY — Seven men dressed in matching blue jeans and tan button-up shirts gathered Thursday to graduate from a welding program that is the first of its kind in Oklahoma.
They were trained by local teachers, given space and equipment by local businesses and received employment assistance from a local nonprofit — a collaborative effort to help them get something thousands of Oklahomans need every year: a job after incarceration. Convicted of crimes ranging from burglary to drug possession, the inmates at the Oklahoma City Community Corrections Center are a few months from their release dates.
They are the first to finish a welding certification program that is a partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and local businesses and organizations, funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant.
“This eliminates the felon question (on a job application),” Greg Dewald, a superintendent at CareerTech and one of the welding program managers, told the men. “You have this, and you’re on ground zero.”
The question on many job applications that asks about past felony convictions can be a big hurdle to climb for former inmates seeking employment, said Kris Steele, executive director of The Education and Employment Ministry known as TEEM. He said community involvement in rehabilitating convicted criminals who will soon be living in neighborhoods across the state is vital to lowering recidivism.
Full story: Oklahoma welding program lets inmates forge job options for life after prison