Darryl Lincoln was in his teens the last time he was free – before his murder conviction 13 years ago.
Now 30, Lincoln has no work experience and few labor skills to rely on when he enters the job market after his release from the Adult Correctional Institutions in less than a year.
That’s why he started attending a new course in the ACI’s minimum security unit that teaches state-of-the-art construction technology, even beyond what many seasoned builders know, according to the instructors. Lincoln hopes it will help him find a job.
“I came to jail with nothing,” said Lincoln, who last lived in Providence. “I’m trying to leave with something.”
Lincoln is one of 26 inmates participating in the new Construction Technology Program, a partnership between the R.I. Department of Corrections and the Community College of Rhode Island.
In addition to the standard building and finishing skills, instructors Norman Cook and Gene Dufault teach the inmates about the newest building materials, such as structural insulating panels and insulating concrete forms.
That’s what makes this program different from others at the ACI, officials said: The course is likely to lead to a well-paying job when an inmate is released, even in the midst of a depressed housing market.
“If you have knowledge of [structural insulating panels and insulating concrete forms], I can get you a job,” said Cook, CCRI’s chief of engineered composite building technologies. “Otherwise, they’ll be unemployed like the rest of the building industry.”
The program got its start after Suzanne D’Onofrio, director of work force training at CCRI, approached the Department of Corrections with the idea. Then she recruited Cook and Dufault, a Coventry High School shop teacher who had taught in the Connecticut prison system.
When the program kicked off a few months ago, more than 400 inmates signed up. Only 26 were selected, based in part on their score on a math test. That class graduated last month and has been replaced by another 26 inmates, most with less than a year left on their sentences.
The inmates are expected to complete 160 hours of hands-on training three nights a week in a basement workshop at the minimum security unit that cost $14,000 to set up. It costs another $30,000 to run each three-month course, according to D’Onofrio.
Ultimately, the goal is to give the inmates skills that will keep them out of prison, ACI spokeswoman Tracey Poole said, pointing out that it costs $40,000 annually to house a minimum security inmate.
Cook is confident that learning about new insulation materials and such will give the inmates a big advantage when they’re released. “The real future of construction is right here,” Cook said last week, pointing to a structural insulated panel, or a SIP, in the prison workshop.
SIPs, thick sheets of rigid insulation embedded with metal studs, are used to form exterior walls, and a builder experienced with SIPs can work faster than someone building a conventional wall, Cook said.
“The houses go up faster and cheaper, and they’re stronger and fireproof,” he said.
Why bother teaching prison inmates? Dufault said he agreed to do it because he sees the emphasis in public schools shifting away from teaching trades, while at the prison, those skills are important. The inmates are receptive, and they ask intelligent questions, he said.
The instructors’ work is already paying off. Two inmates from the previous class are using what they learned in work-release jobs. Another former inmate was recently hired by a company in Smithfield that manufactures SIPs.
That’s why Anthony Delgatto is taking the course.
Delgatto, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is serving a sentence for armed robbery, but he has high hopes for his future. “Nothing can beat this class,” he said last week. “You can almost walk out of prison with a job.” •
