NCJ Number
79799
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 7 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1981) Pages: 41-45
Date Published
1981
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article describes various State and Federal prison programs to give inmates vocational training in the practical applications of solar heating technology to prepare them for jobs when they get out of prison.
Abstract
The Department of Energy (DOE) encouraged the development of programs by providing more than $10,000 in 'seed money' to train more than 100 prison vocational instructors of heating, air conditioning, and plumbing in solar heating technology in 1979. However, the demand for textbooks and training materials has exceeded DOE's supply. The most extensive prison solar training program in the country is in Georgia, where solar heating and cooling systems are being built into many new homes. Inmates in five Georgia State prisons are being taught production, assembly, installation, and maintenance of solar hot water heaters; inmates also have learned how to build and assemble 50 panels for a hot water collector that was installed at the Lee Correctional Institution in Leesburg, Ga. All of the inmates involved in the Georgia program must be within a year of leaving prison and must have at least an eighth grade education. So far, more than 80 percent of the inmates involved in the program who have left prison have found work in solar-related businesses. DOE began solar training programs in 1978 at two State prisons in Connecticut and Florida. At both, solar training has become an integral part of vocational education. Photographs are included.