Met a guy in county who taught me to fix microwaves

I was waiting in the visiting room at the county jail in Springfield for 3 hours. This older man next to me noticed I kept staring at the broken microwave in the corner. He told me he used to fix them for a living before he got locked up for non-payment of child support. We ended up talking for an hour about how jails could teach real skills like appliance repair instead of just making license plates. Has anyone else seen programs that actually teach a trade that gets you a job after release?

3 comments

3 Comments

roberts.leo28d ago

Straight facts. Real skills beat busy work every time.

dixon.james28d ago

Wait, when did prisons start teaching people to fix microwaves? That's wild, I've got a busted one in my kitchen right now that I've been scared to touch. But for real, if I got out and could weld I'd probably just start a badass custom bike shop or something.

claire_young7628d ago

A buddy of mine did time a few years back and he said the welding certification program in his facility actually got him a job within two weeks of getting out. They partnered with a local technical college and everything. The license plate stuff is basically busy work, but a skill like fixing microwaves or welding gives guys something solid to walk into. It's a shame more jails don't push for that kind of thing because it cuts down on repeat customers pretty fast.