Montgomery County officials are hoping a federal grant will rescue a job-training program that teaches prisoners the joys of baking but was recently cut from the county’s budget.
The 12-week program, which also licenses inmates to work as food-service managers, has graduated 69 prisoners since it began in 2004, said Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Art Wallenstein. County Council records show that the program has a nearly 100 percent job placement rate.
Wallenstein said the program, which is called “Sweet Release,” has been an enormous success and helped inmates learn life skills that will help them stay out of trouble once they leave prison. But he said the budget demands of the county, which was facing a deficit of more than $600 million, dictated that the program be cut. The abolishment of a bakery program manager will save the county $15,790 a year.
“We’re sick over it,” Wallenstein said. “This really hurts us.”
Wallenstein said the county should know in a few months whether it’ll receive a federal grant designed to help combat gang violence — a portion of which could be used to fund the Sweet Release program.
“I hope they keep it; it’s a good experience for the guys in here,” said inmate Randall Fleming, who graduated from the class in January. “It gives them a fresh start.” Fleming is serving a sentence for second-degree rape and has a previous criminal record.
Fleming, 22, said he wanted to get a job at a bakery in a grocery store after he is released in November and said the baking program made him reconsider his options in life.
“I’m a smart guy, why didn’t I go to school?” Fleming said he asked himself during the program. “This is easy.”
Chris Johnson, who used to run the program, said such reactions were common among the inmates who start baking. She said baking allows prisoners to see the fruits of the labors quickly, and produces many “wow, I made that” moments. Inmates enrolled in the program made the desserts served to other inmates and staff.
“I saw people change in front of my eyes,” she said.
Wallenstein said that despite cutting the bakery program, there were still many self-improvement and learning options available in Montgomery County’s prisons, which currently house about 1,070 inmates.
