Official: Prisons should be ‘training centers’ not punitive
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mary Johnson felt her self-confidence take a hit when she was imprisoned in Mississippi in 2012.
Johnson had gone to school for accounting and worried that the stigma of serving prison time would prevent her from working again or having a normal life.
That changed when she got a job during her incarceration as an assistant to the director of administration at Mississippi Prison Industries Corporation, a nonprofit company that offers workforce training to incarcerated people. When she was released after 2 and 1/2 years, the company offered her a permanent job: She’s now the director of administration herself.