Prison Industries Teach Job Skills

The Wyoming Department of Corrections maintains several manufacturing enterprises designed to help inmates develop job skills and good work habits. Chris Lansford of D-O-C  says one of the programs is centered around sewing items ranging from bedsheets and towels to police uniforms. Other enterprises  focus on printing, braille transcription, janitorial services and a variety of other occupations. 

Lansford says one thing the inmates don't do is make license plates. She says the idea is to help inmates develop legitimate, marketable job skills so they can support themselves in the outside world without returning to a life of crime. She says the other focus is to teach good work habits, which many prisoners lack when they are incarcerated.