OKEECHOBEE — The Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office is launching a new job readiness initiative inside the Okeechobee County Jail aimed at helping inmates secure employment after release.
The program is being developed in partnership with CareerSource Heartland and is designed to address what jail officials say is a common challenge among repeat offenders.
“One of the things that we've noticed here is a lot of our intakes and releases, especially those that keep coming back, they either don't have employment at all or they'll jump from job to job,” said Sgt. Andrew Eulenfeld with the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office.
Eulenfeld said the Sheriff’s Office already offers services such as substance abuse treatment and parenting classes but identified employment assistance as a missing component.
“Because we offer substance abuse, we offer some parenting classes, all different types of things, but job placement was one that we felt was kind of lacking,” he said.
Research shows steady work can play a key role in lowering recidivism, and Eulenfeld said that data helped drive the effort.
“When you have a stable career or just a stable job, the chances of you reoffending have dropped up to about 16% is what the stats show,” he said. “A lot of our reoffenders are habitual drug users and stuff like that. And if they have a job that they know they can't use, because they might lose that employment, so now they are making money, they're a little more stable, their life seems a little more in order, they're less likely to use as well.”
The program will include group instruction along with individualized support tailored to each participant’s background and skills.
“They'll have a class, but each person will be able to discuss their own transferable skills that they might be able to have in the workforce,” Eulenfeld said. “They'll each get hands-on training with resume building, what staff members might look for in applicants, interview preparation, even talking about your criminal history and your past and how that can affect it, how you can actually talk about it in a positive way and not be discouraged because you have it.”
Support will continue after inmates are released, he said, with CareerSource Heartland remaining available to assist with job placement.
“When they do get out, they will still have those resources and those contacts available with CareerSource when they get out,” he said. “So now they'll have all that training and information that if they need to reach out to employers, CareerSource will still be there to be able to put those resumes out that they helped them build.”
Eligibility for the program will be broad, according to Eulenfeld.
“So as of now, it is available to everybody in our facility as long as their security classification level allows them to,” he said. “Just about everybody is eligible. We only have a small population that maybe due to behavior or mental instability, that they may not be eligible, but almost the entire population will be eligible to take this.”
Funding for the initiative comes from a state grant, meaning there is no cost to participants or the agency.
“So it doesn't cost them any money, it doesn't cost us any money. And we can get the benefit for our community as a whole,” Eulenfeld said.
The first class is scheduled to begin March 6. Eulenfeld said interest is already building among inmates.
“At least according to the inmates, they're seeing positive change in themselves. We're already getting some people signing up for this one. Hopefully it does what we're expecting it to do,” he said.