Vocational courses were another area of focus of programming
for our offender population. In FY 2015, the Department implemented a Welding program, which is a high-demand career field in the state of Georgia. The first Welding program
at Walker State Prison saw its inaugural class graduate 33 offenders, with one graduate receiving a job offer upon release
(set July 2015). This program provides offenders with a Gas
Metal Arc Welder Technical Certificate of Credit through Central Georgia Technical College. The credit of 13 total hours
may be transferred to any institution within the Technical College System of Georgia. This program is the latest addition to
the 23 vocational programs already in place.
Other programming milestones during FY 2015 include the implementation and coordination of:
• Forensic Peer Mentoring Project at Lee Arrendale State Prison consisting of trained mentors employed by the
Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, who work collaboratively with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD). The project provides reentry services, and family
reunification coordination to a significant number of mentally ill female returning citizens. Plans to expand in
FY 2016 at Baldwin and Phillips State Prisons.
• Parent Access Visitation Education (PAVE) program, located at 13 Transitional Centers, assists residents with
understanding and coping with ‘fatherhood’ during incarceration. In FY 2015, 1,000 residents graduated.
• Joint community supervision program for offenders suffering from severe and persistent mental illness,
through the collaboration with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI)/Opening Doors to Recovery
(ODR) and DBHDD/Gateway Community Service Board in Southeast Georgia.
• Social Security Income/Disability Outreach Access and Recovery (SOAR) program assists numerous mentally ill homeless returning citizens to achieve safe housing and mental stability through training and facilitation
of a recipient application process. A national program designed to increase access to the disability income
benefit programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a