You may have seen them downtown or at Fort Hunter, the Greenbelt or Wildwood Lake.
They’re men, mostly young, wielding hammers, hanging drywall, repairing fences. That may seem unremarkable, except that they’re inmates of Dauphin County Prison, a select group chosen to participate in a program that teaches them valuable construction skills.
Run collaboratively by the prison and the Home Builders Institute (HBI), the program aims to fight the problem of chronic unemployment among ex-offenders, a lack of opportunity that leads many to return to street crime upon release.
“The HBI PACT for Adults Program at the Dauphin County Prison opens up the door for at-risk populations like ex-offenders to find satisfying and well-paying careers when they leave prison,” said Amy Strawser, program manager for HBI PACT for Adults Harrisburg.
These HBI PACT students must demonstrate and apply their competencies in a variety of building trades skills by performing hands-on work around the Harrisburg area. Eight to 10 weeks later, they graduate and earn pre-apprenticeship certificates, which signifies to employers they are ready for entry-level work.
“The HBI PACT curriculum combines academic instruction with hands-on training in the building trades as well as literacy and employability skills,” Strawser said. “The men . . . learn skills that will increase their chances of economic self-sufficiency and success so they can move forward and live a crime-free life.”
Community service is an integral component of HBI PACT. Over the past year, students have worked on the Veteran’s Building and projects for Habitat for Humanity and the Humane Society of Harrisburg. They have painted offices and the Dauphin County Anglers and Conservationists’ clubhouse, completed carpentry and framing, done drywall repair and manned a variety of landscape projects.
At Wildwood Park, crew members helped resurface the one-mile Towpath Trail and maintain 100 trees planted as part of a TreeVitalize grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said Chris Rebert, manager of Wildwood Park and Olewine Nature Center.
“They also landscaped around the Olewine Nature Center and spearheaded invasive vine removal from mature park trees,” said Rebert.
Recently, a lack of job opportunities for ex-offenders has gained greater attention in our area as a key contributor to continued high levels of crime. State Rep. Patty Kim (D-Harrisburg) has made fighting recidivism a centerpiece of her legislative agenda, recently co-sponsoring a bill that would expunge a criminal’s record after seven years of release from prison, as long as certain criteria were met.
Several participants said the HBI PACT program allowed them to move on to the next phase of their lives.
Andre, a student, said he anticipated learning the basics of building from the program, but had gained “so much more. In the very near future, I plan to pursue a career in the construction trade. I want to take the knowledge I now have and use it to better my future,” he said.
HBI PACT graduate Daniel Smoot said he was employed by a demolition company after his release from prison, and, not long after, was promoted to supervisor. Then, he began building guardrails for another company and is working on obtaining his commercial driver’s license.
“Things worked out well for me, and I would really recommend the HBI program to young guys trying to break into construction,” Smoot said.
Dauphin County Prison Deputy Warden Elizabeth Nichols said the prison/HBI partnership has been a success and that a recent grant will allow the program to purchase, remodel and sell an abandoned house, providing the HBI PACT students with a job site, bettering the community and maintaining the program beyond the grant period.
“Inmates participating in the program will gain valuable job experience by providing the necessary work,” she said. “This also is a way for inmates to learn to give back to the community—known as restorative justice—another important lesson that contributes to the reduction of recidivism.”
For more information about the HBI PACT for Adults Harrisburg program, please contact Amy Strawser at astrawser@hbi.org or 717-614-5485. You can learn more about HBI’s certification programs, mentoring, pre-apprenticeship training and job placement services at HBI.org.
