Terrance Burnett is looking forward.
Soon, he’ll be released from Community Corrections Center Lincoln and when he leaves, he’ll have a commercial driver’s license and a path toward a well-paying job in a high-demand industry.
“We’re not always in the most positive atmosphere, you know, being incarcerated,” he said. “So there has to be something greater that you hold on to, to believe that you can do.”
A new partnership — the first of its kind in the state — between the city of Lincoln, the state and Hill Brothers’ Pro-Fleet Driving Academy offered him that.
He was among the first five Community Corrections inmates to take classes through Lincoln’s American Job Center program while they were still incarcerated.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, who has earmarked nearly 30% of the city’s $46 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars toward workforce development, has directed $650,000 of that toward the commercial driver’s license program to help meet demand for drivers.
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The program covers the $5,000 tuition and helps participants with transportation and other needs.
The city’s goal was to credential at least 40 people, and 34 are enrolled now, said Dylan Wren, the city’s workforce administrator at the American Job Center.
The Community Corrections inmates are among them, thanks to a partnership that Nebraska Department of Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys said will be a blueprint to create similar programs to help reduce recidivism.
There are multiple factors necessary to help people successfully reintegrate into society once they’re released from prison, and finding gainful employment and earning a livable wage is paramount to that process, he said.
“What truly sets this program apart is the recognition of untapped potential for those reentering back into the communities,” he said. “These individuals possess remarkable talent and a genuine desire to succeed.”
Jeffreys said the department had more than 70 people express interest in participating.
Mitch Evans, who coordinates the four-week program for Hill Brothers, approached the state about including Community Corrections inmates, and the state agreed to waive its driving restrictions so inmates could participate.
Al Hill, owner of Hill Brothers Transportation in Omaha, said the trades industry has been neglected for years, creating a huge demand for drivers in the transportation industry.
The average annual income for truck drivers in Lancaster County is $84,000, Hill said, and the time and money required to become credentialed is much less than traditional educational pursuits.
Of the five participants in the first cohort, four got their certificates during a news conference Wednesday. One of the participants, who was recently released, already has a job, Evans said. Another, who will be released in a month, got a job offer from someone at the crowded news conference. He’ll start when he’s released in a month.
Gov. Jim Pillen said the program is a needed step to helping people find a career and successfully reenter the community.
Burnett, who is finishing a sentence for assault by strangulation and terroristic threats, said he’s looking forward to offering support to others who participate in the program, helping to motivate them to stick with it.
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