PROFITT: Providing Real Opportunities for Income Through Technology

The Second Chance Act Technology Careers Training Demonstration Projects for Incarcerated Adults and Juveniles is designed to provide resources to states, units of local government, and federally recognized tribes for career training in the area of technology for offenders. Grantees must identify a process for assessment and selection of a specific subset of the population of offenders incarcerated in a prison, jail, juvenile facility, juvenile camp, juvenile community-based program, or juvenile residential facility. Offenders must participate in Project activities during the three-year period prior to release into the community. This Program furthers the Department of Justice commitment to providing services and programs to help facilitate the successful integration of offenders as they return to their communities.

The Technology Career Trainings must include a curriculum that helps participants acquire and develop skills needed to build potentially successful careers in technology-related fields. The training curriculum must identify necessary skills and competencies, provide real-world work experience, teach transferable job skills and soft skills to help prepare for post-release reentry and employment, and provide resources to support training in technology areas. The specific type of technology-based job(s) incorporated into the training program is at the discretion of each grantee. However, the grantee must be able to justify the selected training as technology-related. Some examples of technology-based field include, but are not limited, to the following: computer assisted design in engineering; information technology; Braille transcription training and certification; wireless and broadband deployment; technician positions; computer hardware/software; and computer science and programming. Where applicable, the trainings should result in a recognized certificate, degree, or license that indicates a level of mastery and competence in the selected technology focus area. The technology career trainings must restrict access to the Internet by incarcerated persons, as appropriate, to ensure public safety.

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, and its partners, will provide an innovative, prison-based technology training program entitled, "Providing Real Opportunities For Income Through Technology" (PROFITT). This project will modify the proven National Braille Press (NBP) braille training curriculum to better serve the needs of offenders in a correctional setting who are slated for impending release and return to the workforce. This training program has an added focus on the generation of computerized tactile graphics, providing high-demand, transferable software skills that prepare offenders for gainful employment upon release. PROFITT participants will also benefit from specialized small business management and employment skills training and post-release placement support assistance tailored to the needs of transitioning offenders.

The PROFITT project will produce a blueprint for use by any correctional facility interested in implementing the comprehensive, competency-based PROFITT braille training curriculum, geared at positioning offenders for long-term sustainable income upon release.

CA/NCF