Kentucky Addresses a Key Weakness in Many Prison Apprenticeship Programs

This Urban Institute blogpost profiles Kentucky’s Justice to Journeyman program, a prison apprenticeship program. The blogpost notes a key feature of the model: starting classroom occupational instruction (for jobs not available at correctional facilities) at the beginning of the apprenticeship and on-the-job training (OJT) upon the apprentice’s release. This classroom instruction and OJT leads to placement for jobs as welders, electricians, and telecommunications workers. Research cited in the blogpost notes that conventional prison-based apprenticeship programs offer occupational training in jobs typically found in correctional facilities, such as groundskeeping, cleaning, and cooking, which effectively limits economic prospects for returning citizens.