Inmates celebrate vocational training graduation

Westover, Md. – At the Eastern Correctional Institution, 17 inmates put on their aprons and got to work on a special meal they prepared themselves for their graduation, featuring mac and cheese, broccoli and three different flavors of chicken.

Inmates at ECI graduated from a vocational training program in culinary arts, food service and logistics. Hosted by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and IN2WORK, a second-chance program that promotes scholarships and training for incarcerated individuals, a spokesperson at ECI said Tuesday’s graduates earned the highest marks in the state.

“I think this program can help them find a purpose through food. You know, food puts people together,” Gaia Di Giacomo, a senior manager Aramark Consultative Services said. Aramark is a second-chance organization that actively hires graduates from the IN2WORK program after release.

Di Giacomo said skills in food service is a way to motivate inmates to pursue opportunities in expanding their education and get hired, as the food service industry is historically open to hiring former convicts. However, she says the program enables inmates to pursue careers, even if they aren’t in the food industry. She also said upon completion of the program, inmates can apply for a scholarship of $1,000 or $2,500 if they are released. Di Giacomo said family members of inmates can also apply for the scholarship at the same time and receive $2,500.

Edward Crowe, an inmate at ECI, said this is an opportunity to reconnect with his family after release. He told WMDT he has a job lined up in Salisbury at a chicken factory.

“Nothing too big, but it’s consistent, you know, and for incarcerated people, it’s a little difficult to to find something that’s consistent,” he said. He said after saving money, he would “get a place, you know, get back into my children’s life.”

IN2WORK’s program is a “light at the end of the tunnel” for Crowe.

“This is a major stepping stone,” he said. “I believe when you get here … you’re at the bottom of the well, you know, so you’re climbing out of it … and this right here is just kind of a — it’s a kind of a major breath of fresh air.”

For the graduates and officials, the program is a means of reducing the tendency of convicted criminals to reoffend, known as recidivism.

“They’re going to be our neighbors, you know, and we want them to — we want to prepare them to be neighbors and give them the skills to go out into the communities and get jobs, you know, be better parents, be better fathers, be better sons,” ECI Warden Monika Brittingham said. “That’s what it’s all about.”