Corrections_Today_September_October_2019_Vol.81_No.5

participants, non-participating inmates and staff safe. Tools are inventoried in the morning, at lunch and at the end of each day. A qualified instructor supervises incar- cerated students at all times during class. Any participant that does not follow classroom rules can be subject to infractions and/or removal from the program. John Brown is the TRAC instructor at Mission Creek. He’s an Army veteran who spent 25 years as a carpenter. Brown had retired but chose to take the job at Mission Creek because he wanted to make a difference in the women’s lives. “On the second interview, I got to go in and meet the students and I knew right then that I had to do this,” Brown said. “It’s amazing the transformation you see. It’s the phenomenon I experience. It’ll catch me when I give them something that I think is a relatively complicated task and they just go in and blow it out. They have grown by leaps and bounds as a group and as individuals, and they don’t let you down.” Success on the outside Although TRAC is a new program at Mission Creek, it’s been operating at the state’s other women’s facil- ity —Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor — since 2000, according to the facility’s TRAC Instructor, Steve Petermann. Program officials say, to date, more than 300 women have completed the TRAC program. Brown said women in the TRAC program have gotten trades jobs in a wide variety of fields besides the ones TRAC specifically trains for, including millwrights, pipefitters, elevator constructors, operating engineers and even electricians. Buffy Henson, 50, is an example of that. Henson’s been to prison three times since 2007. The last time she went to prison in 2015, she took a chance on TRAC, and it paid off. Three days after her release from prison in 2016, a cabinet manufacturing company in Olympia, Washington gave her an entry-level job filling glue bot- tles. She was quickly promoted, taking the time to seek mentorship from her co-workers and using the training she received in TRAC. She’s now a project engineer at the company. “I learned a lot about myself,” Henson said. “I learned that I was a lot more than what I was giving myself credit for.” She says if it wasn’t for TRAC, she might not have renewed the relationships with her family and children,

have stable housing or the wonderful relationship with her husband that she now has. “TRAC was just lifesaving for me,” Henson said. “I pushed myself harder than I ever had before. Mentally. Spiritually. I just finally wanted enough change that I was willing to do it. It’s an awesome program. I’d rec- ommend it for anyone.” Back at Mission Creek, the TRAC students are look- ing forward to stepping back into their communities. This time with a renewed sense of confidence and com- mitment to leaving their past behind them. Annie Fa’Alogo, 30, is releasing just days after she graduates from TRAC. She’s been incarcerated three times since 2011. She says TRAC has given her the self- discipline she needs to be successful this time around. She now has the skills to become a cement mason and has talked to people working in that field who have visited the class. She’s determined to not come back to prison. “It’s TRAC that has kept me out of trouble,” Fa’Alogo said. “It’s helped me build a rapport with the staff here, with the facility. It’s helped me be a greater person.” Fa’Alogo even took the lead on a few projects while in TRAC. One of those projects aided honeybee con- servation. The Sustainability in Prisons Project keeps beehives at 11 of the state’s correctional facilities. Incarcerated individuals look after hives with help from local chapters of the State Beekeeper’s Association and have the opportunity to become apprentice or journey- man beekeepers. Rainwater had gotten into the Mission Creek hives in recent months, so Fa’Alogo and her classmates built raised platforms and a shelter to protect the hives. The site is now known as “Honey Hill.” Several incarcerated women who’ve completed the program and work in the trades often come back to talk to the current students about their successes. Fa’Alogo wants to come back to be a motivational speaker for a future TRAC class after she is employed. “It’s a good feeling knowing we’re working all the way up to this point,” Fa’Alogo said. “We’re releasing like butterflies. We’re learning how to expand our wings and we’re going to be out of this cocoon soon. Life is going to be out there waiting for us and it’s okay because we’ll be prepared and ready for that.”

Rachel Friederich is a communications consultant for the Washington Department of Corrections.

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