{"142851":{"#nid":"142851","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Program Provides Ex-Offenders with Marketable Skills; Expands Production of Braille Materials","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAn enhanced training program designed to teach Braille transcription, computer skills and business techniques to soon-to-be-released offenders could expand the quantity of printed materials available for blind and visually impaired persons \u2013 while providing ex-offenders marketable skills designed to reduce recidivism rates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKnown as Providing Real Opportunities for Income through Technology (PROFITT), the program is being evaluated at a maximum-security correctional facility in Texas. Once completed and approved, the PROFITT curriculum will be made available to other correctional facilities interested in starting or enhancing Braille training programs.\u0026nbsp; The project was funded by the Second Chance Act, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Bureau of Justice Assistance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn expansion of earlier Braille training programs, PROFITT has been developed through a partnership of the National Braille Press, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Beyond Braille skills, PROFITT teaches broader professional skills, including computer operation and computer graphics, small business management and \u201csoft skills\u201d designed to help ex-offenders work as independent consultants.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPROFITT provides a blueprint for use by any correctional facility interested in implementing a comprehensive, competency-based Braille training program geared toward preparing offenders for long-term sustainable income upon release,\u201d said Patrick Fraser, the program\u2019s coordinator. \u201cThe goal is not only to reduce the rate of recidivism, but also to help meet the need for Braille materials.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe PROFITT pilot program at the Mountain View Braille Facility in Gatesville, Tex., will conclude in mid-July. Input from the pilot will be incorporated into the curriculum, which must still be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBraille is a good topic for prison training programs because it requires extensive instruction and practice, noted Tamara Rorie, a technology licensing associate at AMAC. The PROFITT program includes 750 hours of hands-on classroom training over a period of about 30 weeks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of not only learning the material, but also gaining experience,\u201d she said. \u201cIt takes about a year for people to become certified in literary Braille, which is the base level. Once they get that, they can continue working on advanced certifications.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause the code is difficult to learn, there is an unmet need for people trained to produce Braille materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere are still not enough Braille transcribers to provide the materials that students need, especially textbooks,\u201d Rorie said. \u201cFor every hundred books that are published, only one is converted to Braille.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Braille code uses a system of raised dots to represent characters, words and portions of words that can be read by blind and visually impaired persons. Braille has been compared to stenographer\u2019s shorthand, and includes several levels of higher certification for mathematics, tactile graphics, textbook formatting and even music.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBraille is literacy for people who are visually impaired,\u201d said Fraser. \u201cPeople can listen to a book through a recording or screen reader, but they are not really grasping the full notions of spelling and grammar that are the basis for language and communication. Tactile graphics produced in Braille allow a fuller understanding of the material, and this is especially important to students.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBraille transcription is often done by independent contractors who receive and deliver their work via the Internet. That freedom is helpful to ex-offenders, whose employment opportunities may otherwise be limited by their criminal records.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of people in the prison Braille programs have never worked a real job,\u201d said Rorie. \u201cThose who would like to become independent contractors must understand the kind of discipline required to work by themselves.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere are about three dozen prison Braille training programs operating in the United States. In addition to preparing offenders for an occupation upon release, the programs provide Braille textbooks and other materials mandated by federal law for K-12 schools and other organizations. The services also can provide trainees a sense of purpose.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe Braille program has given them a reason for being, and it gives them a reason to get up every morning because they love doing what they are doing and they love seeing the finished product,\u201d said Delores Billman, industry supervisor at the Mountain View Prison. \u201cThey certainly like to know that someone is using what they have done to better themselves.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPROFITT\u2019s pilot program at the Mountain View facility is teaching about 15 women who had no previous experience with Braille. But the five-track curriculum is designed so that people with Braille skills can separately use the computer and graphics training, as well as the small business and \u201csoft skills\u201d portions. At Mountain View, another 23 women are studying these components in preparation for release.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESabrina Hodges, a Braille transcriber at the Mountain View prison, sees the program as key to her future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI know that I am going to get something out of this, not just for parole, but when I go home,\u201d she said. \u201cI have made a lot of promises to my family and to myself when I got here, and this program has helped me make that happen.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo be eligible for PROFITT, offenders must be free of behavioral infractions for a year, have a good command of the English language and be at least six months away from release. While the Mountain View facility is a women\u2019s prison, Braille training programs operate at both men\u2019s prisons and juvenile facilities, Rorie noted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPROFITT provides a win-win for both offenders and the larger society, Fraser said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBraille is not inexpensive to produce, and programs like this can help provide textbook materials to meet the needs of blind and visually impaired students,\u201d he explained.\u0026nbsp; \u201cIn addition to meeting the demand for these materials, these programs are providing ex-offenders with skills that will allow them to be tax-paying citizens when they get out.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThis project was supported by Grant No. 2010-RV-BX-0005 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the SMART Office, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not represent the official position or policies of the United States Department of Justice.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 309\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia\u0026nbsp; 30308\u0026nbsp; USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Assistance\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986)(\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAn enhanced training program designed to teach Braille transcription, computer skills and business techniques to soon-to-be-released offenders could expand the quantity of printed materials available for blind and visually impaired persons \u2013 while providing ex-offenders marketable skills designed to reduce recidivism rates.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new Braille curriculum is giving skills to ex-offenders and producing materials for the blind."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2012-07-26 16:12:46","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:36","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-07-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-07-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"142791":{"id":"142791","type":"image","title":"Creating a Bar Graph","body":null,"created":"1449178723","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:38:43","changed":"1475894774","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:14","alt":"Creating a Bar Graph","file":{"fid":"194988","name":"profitt0191.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt0191_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt0191_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1309058,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/profitt0191_0.jpg?itok=Vo4G8fgg"}},"142801":{"id":"142801","type":"image","title":"Creating Tactile Graphic","body":null,"created":"1449178723","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:38:43","changed":"1475894774","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:14","alt":"Creating Tactile Graphic","file":{"fid":"194989","name":"profitt257.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt257_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt257_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1481591,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/profitt257_0.jpg?itok=8yZ4gDr7"}},"142821":{"id":"142821","type":"image","title":"Tactile Graphic","body":null,"created":"1449178723","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:38:43","changed":"1475894774","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:14","alt":"Tactile Graphic","file":{"fid":"194991","name":"profitt477.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt477_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt477_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1590701,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/profitt477_0.jpg?itok=X_IsYdJ5"}},"142811":{"id":"142811","type":"image","title":"Braille Transcription","body":null,"created":"1449178723","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:38:43","changed":"1475894774","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:14","alt":"Braille Transcription","file":{"fid":"194990","name":"profitt0501.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt0501_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/profitt0501_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1667893,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/profitt0501_0.jpg?itok=-mZjsoLX"}}},"media_ids":["142791","142801","142821","142811"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"39021","name":"Alternative Media Access Center"},{"id":"38981","name":"Braille"},{"id":"39061","name":"Braille training"},{"id":"39071","name":"corrections"},{"id":"3671","name":"Enterprise Innovation Institute"},{"id":"39081","name":"prison"},{"id":"39001","name":"recidivism"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 894-6986\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}