Local prisons push for real-world inmate training

CHILLICOTHE – Preparation for the real world was the key concern for Wardens Mark Hooks and Charlotte Jenkins Thursday at the Ohio Ex-Offender Reentry Coalition conference.

The conference was hosted at Ohio University-Chillicothe and focused on what the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction can do to educate offenders and make their prison time productive.

“What we’ve been trying to do in Ross County and Chillicothe is to give people hope,” Hooks, warden of the Ross Correctional Institution, said. “We want to release people who are better off than when they came to prison.”

Hooks and Jenkins, warden for the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, said programs like resume critiques, mock job interviews, addiction counseling and career opportunities have helped inmates prepare for life or make the most of their time in incarceration.

“We are teaching people how to become better citizens when they enter society,” Jenkins said.

According to Jenkins, some of CCI’s programs are rooted in community service. Offenders make blankets for the homeless, rosaries for local Catholic churches and hats and scarves for cancer survivors.

“It may be a small thing, but for those individuals, it’s a big thing,” Jenkins said about the homeless helped by offenders.