Former Inmates Join Service Center as Auto Mechanics

TOWSON, MD  –  The non-profit Vehicles for Change opened a new Full Circle Service Center in Halethorpe today hiring eight former inmates as paid auto mechanic interns.

The organization repairs donated cars and awards them to low-income families. The service center will be staffed by former inmates as part of a pioneering reentry initiative that trains them at Maryland prisons for auto repair.

The program makes the state safer by placing the former offenders in full-time jobs, lowering chances that they will reoffend. Vehicles for Change plans to add an additional 15 former inmates to its operation later in the year.

“Each program is a valuable building block in a bigger strategy to construct safe and secure communities for all Marylanders,” said Judith Sachwald, director of the Division of Parole and Probation at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS).

Stephen T. Moyer, Secretary of DPSCS, serves as co-chairman of the Education and Workforce Training Coordinating Council for Correctional Institutions, which endorsed the program along with the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR), which trains the inmates.

Full Circle will be staffed by interns in the Auto Technicians for Change program that trains ex-offenders in the automotive sector and tries to place trainees in full-time employment within six to 12 months.

Prior to Auto Technicians for Change there were no transitional employment programs for automotive technicians in Maryland, said Martin Schwartz, Vehicles for Change president.

“As the first sector-specific prison reentry program in the state of Maryland, we hope to be a model for future programs,” Schwartz said.