NCJ Number
75023
Date Published
1980
Length
74 pages
Annotation
This pamphlet describes the development and expansion of the Women Offender Apprenticeship Program which seeks to expand the opportunities for women to enter nontraditional jobs, particularly the skilled trades, through apprenticeship.
Abstract
It describes the beginning of the program, its implementation, and reasons for its success. At the time the Women Offender Apprenticeship Committee began its work in 1978, only one Federal correctional institution (FCI), a cocorrectional facility in Lexington, Ky., had a woman in an apprenticeship program. The first section of the pamphlet describes the committee's decision to make the Federal prison system a showcase for the apprenticeship program and to combat sexual stereotyping through such tactics as publicity campaigns, preemployment exposure to tool handling, and remedial work in math. In addition, the committee's efforts to introduce women into two existing apprenticeship programs at FCI Lexington, Ky., and FCI Fort Worth, Tex., and to develop new programs at the two all-female Federal institutions in Alderson, W. Va., and Pleasanton, Calif., are related. The pamphlet also describes the committee's consultation with representatives from State correctional agencies with FCI Alderson as the consultation site. A final section explains how to develop a women offender apprenticeship program in state prisons housing women. It includes such important steps as contacting the local apprenticeship and training representatives from the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training of the U.S. Department of Labor; deciding what the program should do, forming a joint apprenticeship committee made up of volunteer representatives from the local labor and management community, selecting the apprentices, operating a smooth program, and setting up support systems. Appendixes include a bibliography of materials related to women in apprenticeship; standards of apprenticeship for FCI Alderson; a certificate of registration; an award of honor; a recordkeeping form; and lists of apprenticeship information centers, Women's Bureau regional offices, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training regional offices, Federal prison system regional administrators (education), and State and territorial apprenticeship agencies.