MDOC-CISCO collaborative Technology Training Project

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and returning to communities. The Second Chance Act will help ensure that the transition individuals make from prison, jail, or juvenile residential facilities to the community is successful and promotes public safety. Section 115 of the Second Chance Act authorizes federal awards to states, units of local government, territories, and federally recognized Indian tribes to provide technology career training to persons confined in state prisons, local jails, and juvenile residential facilities.

The goal of the Second Chance Act Technology Careers Training Demonstration Projects for Incarcerated Adults and Juveniles is to increase the post-release employability of offenders in related technology-based jobs and career fields. The objective of the program is to support the education, training, mentoring, support services, and job placement for incarcerated/detained adults and juveniles in a technology field.

The grant recipient will use the grant to support vocational training program designed to prepare inmates for jobs in various companies with career potential, as well as to provide for entrepreneur possibilities. The funds will support the grantee with the initiative to expand the current Cisco pilot project, and establish a Cisco Networking Academy where computer-based curriculum will be delivered with an accompanying "hands on" lab, in which actual break down and re-assembly on computer hardware is learned. CA/NCF