In 2014, Nebraska created a Vocational and Life Skills (VLS) Program providing funding for the state’s jail population to learn trades to lower the odds of recidivism, reports the Nebraska Examiner.
About 6,000 inmates have been served since the program began and the state upped spending on the training programs from $3.5 million a year to $5 million, according to a study by researchers from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
The most recent annual report on the VLS Program for 2020-21 said that 71 percent of participants completed their classes. Campagna, a co-author of the study, said that it was “unexpectedly high” due to limited access to prisons due to COVID-19.
The report also cited prison staff shortages which impacted the ability to conduct programs.
“They’re the first people, in years who have treated them like real human beings,” Campagna said of the program providers. “(Inmates) appreciate that and want more of that.”
One inmate quoted in the report, identified as “Cain,” said: “I wasn’t believing in myself. There wasn’t too many people around that were believing in me, but these folks, they did.”
But barriers remain toward rehabilitation. Researchers found most inmates in the VLS program never never held a real job prior to incarceration.
Additional barriers to becoming crime-free consist of finding “safe” housing, finding affordable mental health counseling and overcoming employers’ reluctance to hire a prior offender.
Therefore, the study made several recommendations including, increasing affordable mental health services; rewarding law-abiding behavior by expunging some criminal offenses after five or 10 years of success; increasing computer training operations and Ensuring that individuals are engaging in “pro-social” peer groups so they remain on a crime-free trajectory.
But despite the success of the program, the percentage of individuals reoffending three years after their release rose, according to recent statistics. In the fiscal year 2009-10, the state’s recidivism rate was 27.7 percent. That figure had increased to 30.2 percent in 2017-18.
Campagna said one recurring theme in successful inmates was maturity and a desire to reconnect with family and children and leave a life of crime behind.
The full study can be found here.
This summary was prepared by Associate TCR editor James Van Bramer.