A huge effort is underway to reduce Arizona's prison population and keep inmates from returning. Governor Ducey says the program is off to a great beginning. The Department of Corrections and Department of Economic Security are teaming up to line up jobs for inmates upon their release. Since March, 228 people have completed the program and 110 of them are now employed.
9UrScience's Max Darrow has the story from Buckeye tonight. This program is now at three state prisons at the Tucson facility, the Perryville facility, and right here, the Lewis facility. Plez Taylor spent the past seven years locked up, his crime, assault.
But come September, he'll be rejoining society, most likely with a job. It gives me a better chance not to violate or not to mess up to come back. So if I got my head on doing the right thing, then I can't do the wrong thing. Things are a little bit different in this complex. One thing you'll notice, it is a celled environment, but there aren't any locks on the doors.
Along with fellow inmates at the Sunrise Unit, Taylor gets professional training with the help of the Department of Economic Security. How to interview. How to create a resume.
But that's not all. They get hands-on professional training for certain jobs so they can actually be ready to go the day they're hired. It's about taking the next step to fulfill our mission of making corrections truly become corrections. Governor Doug Ducey says this will help inmates have a smoother transition back into the community, making the streets safer and decreasing recidivism.
We'd rather provide an opportunity for them. They've paid their debt to society. They've served their time. And oftentimes they re-offend.
because they don't have any opportunity in front of them. Here at Hickman's Family Farms, we believe in giving people second chances. Hickman's Family Farms is just one of the many businesses at a career fair for the inmates on Monday.
They've got a variety of positions to fill, and they say they're willing to give the inmates a shot. There are going to be some deal-breakers, and that does happen from time to time. But I would say that the majority of the times when people come to us and demonstrate a willingness to learn, to work hard, to be part of our team, we're going to do everything we can do to make sure that we put them to work.
It's that attitude that has Thomas Regalado feeling more confident about staying out of trouble once he's out of prison. And it's not going to be the first time he's been released. I would get out and be in the streets, don't know nobody, don't know where the jobs are or who's hiring or who's not.
And it gets frustrating because you put in application after application, and no, we're not hiring felons. He's finishing up his seventh stint behind bars, 26 years of his life locked away for crimes stemming from his drug addiction. Regalado says it's a tough cycle to break, but by having a job, he'll be spending his time being a productive member of society. I don't have time to be running the streets or going from friend's house to friend's house. Getting drunk or high or whatever the case may be.
And I'm trying to take advantage of it every way I can. As for Taylor, he's ready to get out and rekindle his relationships, and he thinks he can do it right thanks to the help of this program. And you can't take care of someone else if you can't take care of yourself.
You know what I'm saying? So just to have a leg up, period, to put myself in a better situation, to put my family or anybody that I need to help in a better situation. Some of the inmates I spoke with and the officials say they're looking forward to expanding this program to more. of the state prisons. Reporting from the Lewis Prison Complex, Max Darrow, KGUN9, on your side.