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Inside the Ohio prison where inmates build every ODOT snow plow truck · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:10
  You're listening to the hidden lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:14
  I'm your host Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:16
  I saw a really cool story about inmates in Ohio, prison inmates who make every that's right, every state plow truck that's on the road in Ohio.
• 0:33
  This program has been around for a while.
• 0:35
  And this, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 0:38
  I thought it was a really cool story because there were recent articles that interviewed these inmates.
• 0:47
  And they were talking about how meaningful the job is.
• 0:51
  And I have extensive background in the trucking industry.
• 0:56
  And uh even in uh production of of these kinds of trucks.
• 1:01
  In fact, these exact trucks.
• 1:04
  Uh I delivered brand new trucks for uh a man who uh passed away, unfortunately a few years ago, uh, but very, very, very good friend of mine, uh, one of my church members, a beloved friend, family friend, and I worked for him over the summers when I was in seminary, and I would uh I would deliver these trucks, these brand new trucks uh to dealerships all over the east coast.
• 1:34
  And uh a lot of the trucks that that they built were snowplow trucks, and uh to have a production shop like this, it's uh it's very complicated.
• 1:46
  You have everything from engineers to safety managers to uh on and on and on, you know, your skilled workers, your welders, uh your your assemblers who uh put the the uh pumps together and all the all the hydraulic lines and uh it's it's complicated.
• 2:10
  So to see this implemented uh a full-blown plant uh inside of a prison uh is really incredible, and for people to have the the foresight to do that and to provide that kind of a skill, those kinds of skills.
• 2:29
  I mean, there are many, many skills.
• 2:31
  Uh to be able to provide those those skills for inmates and equip them for the release back into society, I think is absolutely huge.
• 2:41
  And uh, of course, I have a family member.
• 2:45
  I've my own father who might reporting him to the authorities landed him in prison for the rest of his life.
• 2:53
  Uh, but a lot of people, a lot of people get out of prison, and there's this big elephant in the room, and nobody really talks about it.
• 3:04
  But the elephant in the room is how do you integrate them back into society?
• 3:10
  We can say what we want.
• 3:11
  We can say, well, just load them up and put them on a bus and you know, ship them off somewhere, then put them on a boat and put them on an island.
• 3:20
  Well, it's great to feel that way.
• 3:24
  Uh you know, everybody's entitled to their own opinions, but the reality is that people who've been released from prison are all around us.
• 3:37
  You might have a next door neighbor who spent years in prison.
• 3:43
  All of us have, or at least most of us, I would assume all of us have met people who've spent time in prison.
• 3:53
  You know, there are at any given time some two million people who are incarcerated in the United States.
• 4:02
  You know, most of us have had interactions with some of those two million people.
• 4:08
  You know, a lot of those people, the majority of those people get out, they're not lifetime inmates.
• 4:14
  And so the question is, what do you do?
• 4:16
  How do we how do we equip them?
• 4:17
  How are our prisons equipping them?
• 4:19
  And I've uh I actually worked with my mom in a reintegration program in one of our local prisons here in uh in my town.
• 4:28
  We have two state prisons in our town.
• 4:31
  And uh actually the two state prisons, the the the population of those prisons combined is larger than our entire town that the prisons are in.
• 4:44
  And uh a lot of those people get released, and I can tell you from working with people in the prison, there is no plan.
• 4:54
  When people get released, when their time is up, they've done their time, they literally open up the doors to the prison and say, good luck.
• 5:05
  And a lot of people don't uh, in fact, most people don't wind up in prison anywhere close to their home.
• 5:14
  So a lot of the people that we get in our prisons are from all over the state.
• 5:19
  I mean, they could literally be from anywhere across the state.
• 5:24
  And uh they wind up in prison in in a town in the middle of nowhere, they don't know anybody.
• 5:29
  All of a sudden the doors are kicked open, they're uh they're given one pair of clothing, and they walk outside and they have no money, and they uh they're told good luck.
• 5:42
  We hope you make it.
• 5:44
  Make it to where make it how.
• 5:50
  It's intimidating, it's overwhelming.
• 5:52
  Now I know people rightfully have the right to make the argument.
• 5:57
  Well, you shouldn't have put yourself in that situation.
• 6:00
  Okay, great.
• 6:02
  I get it.
• 6:03
  Uh, you know, I I always say my father, he got a life sentence in prison.
• 6:10
  Well, he worked pretty hard to get that sentence.
• 6:13
  He's exactly where he belongs.
• 6:16
  Uh he worked overtime and even triple time to get the sentence that he got.
• 6:24
  He got exactly what he deserved.
• 6:27
  And uh the justice system decided that he was such a threat to society that he should never be released.
• 6:38
  But there are other people who do get released, and they're hardened criminals.
• 6:45
  And so the the question is, what are the chances of them winding up back in prison if they have no money, zero money?
• 6:57
  They have no friends, no family that they can fall back on, no place to go.
• 7:04
  You know what it takes to get a rental place.
• 7:08
  I've sat with people through the through the process.
• 7:12
  You have to do credit backgrounds, credit checks, and criminal background checks.
• 7:19
  Well, right there.
• 7:22
  There's two strikes against you.
• 7:24
  If you spend any amount of time in prison, you don't have any money.
• 7:30
  Chances are if you're in prison, you you don't really uh have good credit.
• 7:35
  So what do you do?
• 7:37
  Where do you start?
• 7:38
  How do you begin?
• 7:40
  You walk around and knock doors.
• 7:42
  Hey, I just got out of prison.
• 7:43
  Will you hire me?
• 7:46
  Nope.
• 7:49
  So what's the solution?
• 7:51
  We've not come up with the solution.
• 7:53
  People have been in prison since the beginning of time.
• 7:57
  You know, and there are certain things that it's always interesting to me.
• 8:02
  Uh, you know, I I talk, I I gripe about because I I have a mechanic background.
• 8:10
  I I gripe about the engineering in the cars, and I'm like, it's 2026 now.
• 8:16
  And you would think by now that manufacturers like Dodge.
• 8:23
  Take a manufacturer that's been around forever.
• 8:26
  You would think by now that they would be able to build something that actually works.
• 8:33
  And I'm not joking around here.
• 8:34
  Like I'm not picking on any particular brand.
• 8:37
  It's it's a whole bunch of them.
• 8:40
  And I'm dead serious.
• 8:42
  You mean to tell me that Dodge, Nissan, GM, um, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, none of them can build a decent transmission.
• 8:59
  They can't build a transmission that lasts more than 100,000 miles.
• 9:05
  I mean, they've been around forever.
• 9:07
  They can't build an engine that doesn't crap out after 100,000 miles.
• 9:13
  I mean, you ought to be able to get a minimum of three, four hundred thousand out of a gasoline engine, out of a gas car.
• 9:20
  You should easily be able to get if you properly maintain them, you should get three to four hundred thousand miles out of these cars fairly easily.
• 9:31
  And I'm not saying that because I'm I'm like inflating the numbers.
• 9:34
  I'm saying that from experience.
• 9:36
  That's exactly what I get out of my cars.
• 9:40
  All of them.
• 9:40
  Every single one of them.
• 9:42
  So it's things like that.
• 9:44
  You know, like I I could point to a million different things like that.
• 9:48
  You mean to tell me these things have been around for so many years, and we haven't figured out how to do dot dot dot fill in the blank.
• 9:57
  You know, on and on and on it goes.
• 10:01
  Um doors.
• 10:04
  There are certain doors, and I'm just like, really?
• 10:07
  This is 2026.
• 10:09
  This is how we're making doors.
• 10:12
  How about appliances?
• 10:14
  Ooh, that's a good one.
• 10:16
  You remember the old washer and dryers that had to click knobs.
• 10:19
  You had to push in the knob.
• 10:21
  And then you know, you spin it around and then you pop it out on the washing machine.
• 10:29
  Those things lasted forever.
• 10:34
  And now you're lucky.
• 10:35
  I mean, you are lucky.
• 10:36
  If you got 10 years out of any appliance, you're you're doing really, really good.
• 10:45
  I mean, it's incredible.
• 10:47
  But anyway, it's those kinds of things that you just kind of scratch your head and you're like, wait, uh you mean to tell me that these things have been around forever.
• 10:57
  And we know that they know how to make things.
• 10:59
  Look at look at airplanes.
• 11:00
  Look at how long they keep airplanes in service.
• 11:02
  There are airplanes that are that have been built in the 50s and 60s.
• 11:07
  That it's like people's everyday airplane.
• 11:10
  They're still using them, they're still in the air, still doing great.
• 11:17
  I mean, it's incredible.
• 11:20
  So we know how to do certain things.
• 11:22
  We know that they know how to do it.
• 11:25
  And in the prisons, it's no different.
• 11:28
  You know, by now, by 2026, prisons ought to have, and I'm talking every prison.
• 11:36
  They ought to have programs exactly like this.
• 11:39
  Chilliclothe ought to be the example of a prison for uh how to cut how to create programs, and then they don't all have to be truck manufacturing.
• 11:50
  Um, but just different skills, teach different skills.
• 11:56
  Teach people how to cook.
• 11:58
  And I know people somebody's gonna say, oh, they have that, they have those programs.
• 12:03
  I know, I get it.
• 12:05
  But not every prison does.
• 12:08
  Some prisons do.
• 12:11
  But not every prison teaches people how to work.
• 12:13
  They don't actively try to connect people to jobs.
• 12:18
  And that's what the prisons are missing.
• 12:21
  You know, they ought they ought to be working with manufacturers.
• 12:25
  And I know that these places, um, I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now.
• 12:31
  You remember that lady from the airplane.
• 12:34
  She's talking about like some fictitious guy that was back there or something as some bizarre interaction on the airplane.
• 12:42
  Anyway, that just popped in my head.
• 12:44
  The random things that come to my mind.
• 12:47
  But I'm telling you, uh it would it would do companies well.
• 12:53
  Companies are desperate for employees, believe it or not.
• 12:59
  Everybody thinks our economy's trashed and companies are laying people off.
• 13:04
  That see, that shows the economies the economy slowing down, the economy's bad.
• 13:09
  There are companies right now.
• 13:12
  I know owners of these companies who are desperate for workers.
• 13:16
  They can't find workers.
• 13:20
  So wouldn't it be interesting if those companies worked with the prisons and said, hey, why don't we help you?
• 13:30
  Why don't we help you by bringing our business to the prison?
• 13:39
  You know, we'll send a few of our people and we'll set up shop and we'll start uh training some of your inmates who are gonna get released in the next few years.
• 13:51
  And uh and we'll go through the process.
• 13:53
  We'll actually go through the hiring process in prison.
• 13:57
  We'll do a mock hiring.
• 14:00
  We'll teach them the skills of how to fill out a resume and how to interview, how to actually sit down and sit through an interview.
• 14:10
  And I think that would benefit everybody, not just prisoners.
• 14:16
  I think all of us would benefit from that.
• 14:19
  You know, if those kinds of uh programs were out there and readily available, but at any rate, you know, teach them how to do resumes and how to sit through an interview and how to how to uh formulate answers, and then teach them a skill, get them the certificates, and then connect them to that place of business once they get released from prison.
• 14:45
  When somebody says, what's your plan?
• 14:49
  Then they can say, without a shadow of a doubt and with confidence.
• 14:55
  I have a job lined up.
• 14:56
  As soon as I walk out this door, I'm going to my job.
• 15:00
  They they helped me set up an apartment, they they helped me go through the process, and I'm gonna have housing available.
• 15:08
  As soon as I step out this door, I'm gonna have housing, and I'm gonna work my way up to getting transportation.
• 15:16
  But for now, I have a place secured, and I have a job secured, and it's it's all gonna work out.
• 15:26
  Can you imagine what that would do for our society?
• 15:28
  Can you imagine what that would do to the crime rate?
• 15:32
  Now, I don't know.
• 15:33
  It's I haven't seen any studies yet.
• 15:36
  I actually have looked, but I've not seen any studies that talk about what the effects would be.
• 15:42
  And uh I can speculate, you know, maybe I'm being a little too optimistic here, but I think the crime rates would go down.
• 15:51
  Because I've seen it, I've seen it in my own town that hosts two state prisons.
• 15:57
  I see where people who've been in prison and they get released, they turn to crime.
• 16:02
  Guess why?
• 16:04
  They don't have money, they don't have a place to live, they don't know anybody, and so robbery happens, you know, people steal things constantly.
• 16:16
  I mean, constantly.
• 16:18
  I see it in the news every single day.
• 16:20
  Somebody caught in theft.
• 16:24
  Like, here we go again.
• 16:28
  So what if what if we reduced theft by teaching inmates skills like this?
• 16:36
  I mean, real skills and getting them connected to jobs, and uh, you know, we're doing it in high schools now, which is incredible.
• 16:43
  There's a growing trend in high schools where uh they're connecting kids to jobs before they even graduate.
• 16:49
  I mean high-paying jobs.
• 16:52
  So it can be done.
• 16:54
  Uh be a little bit more complicated, but it can be done.
• 16:58
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• 19:40
  There is a prison in Chillicloth.
• 19:43
  They actually, it's the Chilliclothe Correctional Institute in Ohio.
• 19:49
  And they have a full blown factory where they manufacture truck beds and plows, and they retrofit these truck chassis into into
• 20:00
  Uh snow plows.
• 20:01
  In fact, every single Ohio dot plow has been built by inmates.
• 20:12
  That's pretty cool.
• 20:13
  I'm going to get into the articles here because this is really cool.
• 20:18
  So here's an article.
• 20:20
  These are all recent.
• 20:21
  These articles are from last month, December.
• 20:25
  And here's one.
• 20:27
  NBC4i.com.
• 20:31
  It's a local, these are local news stories because you won't find, you won't find happy stories on the national news very often.
• 20:39
  You know, they're too busy covering the manufactured riots and things like that.
• 20:46
  So we're going to talk about it here on the hidden lightness.
• 20:49
  But we had to dig and look for local news stories to be able to find these kinds of stories.
• 20:55
  But lo and behold, here it is.
• 20:58
  Chilliclathe, Ohio.
• 21:01
  The Ohio Department of Transportation snow plows are a familiar site during the winter.
• 21:06
  But what many residents may not realize is that each vehicle is built by incarcerated workers at the Chilliclothe Correctional Institution.
• 21:19
  Ohio Penal Industries.
• 21:22
  Otherwise known as OPI.
• 21:24
  You might hear me refer to it as OPI.
• 21:27
  That's Ohio POL Industries, a division of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections that provides job trip job training.
• 21:37
  And the State Transportation Department have partnered on a winter service vehicle program since 1968.
• 21:47
  Now, for those of you living in Ohio, I'm going to ask this question.
• 21:53
  Did you know that this program was around?
• 21:56
  Did you know that every single snow plow that you see on the road has been built by inmates at this correctional institution?
• 22:08
  Did you know that?
• 22:10
  I mean, I think it's really interesting.
• 22:14
  And I'm guessing this is kind of a best kept secret that not many people know.
• 22:21
  Every single snowplow that you pass that's an O dot snowplow has been built by Chilliclothy inmates.
• 22:33
  That's pretty cool.
• 22:34
  So anyway, through the program, people serving out their sentence at the Chiliclothi prison built every O dot snowplow and salt truck seen on Ohio roads.
• 22:46
  There you have it.
• 22:48
  About 180 men participate in the program, or if you're from the South program, according to shop manager James Fryer, who's employed with the State Corrections Department.
• 23:02
  Incarcerated workers like Jorino Johnson helped build approximately 140 vehicles that are distributed throughout the state each year.
• 23:15
  Quote.
• 23:16
  We have families out there as well that drive these roads.
• 23:19
  So we put all, we put our all in these trucks because it helps the safety of our state.
• 23:26
  See, that's interesting to me.
• 23:29
  These inmates have a vested interest in it.
• 23:33
  Now you can say a lot about inmates.
• 23:36
  But the one thing that I found is that a lot of them really lean on their families.
• 23:41
  Even if their families have turned their backs on them.
• 23:46
  A lot of inmates are really attached to their families, they're really connected to their families.
• 23:52
  Some are not.
• 23:54
  Some families have chosen to not be connected with the inmates.
• 23:58
  But there's still there's still a kind of a connection there.
• 24:03
  And the inmates talk about their families all the time.
• 24:05
  I've visited many, many, many, many times to prisons.
• 24:11
  I used to volunteer at one of our state correctional institutions.
• 24:19
  Been uh a visitor for inmates that I've known.
• 24:26
  I've visited my dad, I've I've talked to workers, I've talked to other inmates there.
• 24:31
  And it's interesting.
• 24:32
  They always start talking about their family.
• 24:35
  You know, there's that connection there.
• 24:39
  So there's that vested interest there.
• 24:41
  You know, the interest uh, hey, our family members are out there, they're out driving these roads, and uh, we got to take pride in what we do.
• 24:48
  You don't want to put uh a garbage product out there.
• 24:53
  And these trucks, you know, I'm telling you, they're really complicated.
• 24:56
  I've I've been on the floor of of our local plant.
• 25:00
  We actually have two local plants here, and uh I I know both owners and know them really well.
• 25:09
  Great, great people, great families.
• 25:12
  And uh I like I said, I worked at the one plant as a delivery driver, and I was one of a handful, you know, maybe five or six drivers, and we delivered every single one, 100% of these trucks we delivered uh all up and down the eastern seaboard.
• 25:28
  And so I got to be a part of that process, and I saw how complicated it is.
• 25:34
  I mean, it's a really complex uh um manufacturing plant, and the whole process from start to finish is uh very meticulous.
• 25:46
  You know, safety is as a top priority because it's a very, very dangerous job, and there's just a lot that can go wrong, and you're you're dealing with torches and welders and big sheets of metal that weigh a few tons each, and something slips, and I mean if it slips by an inch and can be a matter of life and death really quickly, you're not gonna win against a several ton piece of sheet metal.
• 26:20
  Um or aluminum or you know, whatever they're using.
• 26:24
  Some are steel beds, some are aluminum beds.
• 26:28
  Uh, but it's very complex.
• 26:30
  Uh, the wiring is complex.
• 26:32
  The hydraulics are very complex.
• 26:35
  So everybody has their own area of specialty, and uh everybody has to work together flawlessly.
• 26:44
  When I tell you that there's not room for fighting, there's not room for somebody taking off and doing something their own way and being like, well, I don't care that you do it like that.
• 26:57
  I've been doing it like this my whole life, and you know, like there's zero tolerance for that.
• 27:04
  None.
• 27:06
  And teamwork has to be exceptionally high, which isn't another skill that a lot of these guys don't they don't learn out there before they wind up in prison.
• 27:19
  They never learned how to be a team person, how to get along with other people, how to work with other people, how to take somebody else's safety, you know, when you have somebody else's life that's in your own hands, literally, um that's a skill that's really really important.
• 27:39
  You know, it's not like they're teaching people to cut grass.
• 27:43
  Uh, this is a very high skills job.
• 27:46
  It's a very demanding job, very hot job.
• 27:50
  You walk inside of one of these plants and it's miserably hot because of all the torches and all the equipment, all the electricity, it's just it makes it very, very, very hot.
• 28:04
  So, yeah, I think it's pretty cool.
• 28:06
  I think it's neat that not only are the inmates learning the skill and they're getting certificates, uh, but the trucks, I I think it's pretty cool to say, hey, when you drive down the road, you can literally like you can take your kids and you can point to a plow truck and say, Bet you don't know where that was made, and it opens up a conversation, it's a conversational thing.
• 28:34
  Next time you're driving across the state of Ohio, tell your kids I know where that plow truck.
• 28:42
  You can even do a bet.
• 28:44
  No, I'm just kidding.
• 28:45
  I'm a preacher, we don't do bets.
• 28:48
  We don't gamble.
• 28:49
  Family gamble time.
• 28:52
  You know, 20 bucks to the person who can say where this truck came from.
• 28:57
  But, you know, it's a conversation piece, and I think it's just pretty cool.
• 29:02
  It's it's a cool fact to know that every single O dot truck was built by inmates.
• 29:10
  So here's a quote from another uh another inmate.
• 29:13
  This is a guy by the name of um Fryer.
• 29:17
  What's his first name?
• 29:18
  Trying to find his first name here.
• 29:22
  Uh maybe it doesn't say it, I don't know.
• 29:26
  Anyway, they go through a six-week training course uh just to take part in the program.
• 29:33
  They have to go through a six week training course.
• 29:37
  A rule violation in prison may disqualify somebody from taking part in the program.
• 29:43
  But otherwise, every incarcerated individual has an equal opportunity.
• 29:50
  That's according to Mr.
• 29:52
  Fryer.
• 29:54
  He says everybody here has made the choice to commit themselves to be a better person every single day.
• 30:00
  They really do give 110%.
• 30:03
  I think he must be like the uh director of that program.
• 30:10
  Uh James Fryer, there we go.
• 30:12
  He's the shop manager.
• 30:14
  James Fryer, shop manager.
• 30:19
  So he said, yeah, they give it 110%.
• 30:24
  They get paid.
• 30:26
  The program is paid, and uh the workers may choose to put money in their savings accounts to take with them when they re-enter society.
• 30:36
  So there you go.
• 30:37
  Uh it is really interesting to me that our prisons will put people on the street with not a penny to their name.
• 30:46
  And I don't care.
• 30:48
  I mean, that it's maybe it's not that they don't care.
• 30:50
  It's that it's not their job.
• 30:55
  You know, the guys who open up the doors and and and the corrections officers who let the prisoners out.
• 31:01
  It's not their job to hold their hand and make sure that they have a taxi cab or have somebody picking them up.
• 31:08
  It's you know, make sure that they have a X amount of dollars and make sure that they have extra pair of clothes and make sure that they have a place lined up.
• 31:18
  It's not really their job.
• 31:22
  And it is unfortunate.
• 31:26
  Because I, you know, I I just I think that when we expect people to just figure it out.
• 31:35
  When they've lived a life where maybe they've not been taught a whole lot.
• 31:40
  They've been disadvantaged.
• 31:44
  Anyway, your disadvantaged when you've been to prison automatically puts you at a major disadvantage.
• 31:51
  Then to just kick them on the street and say good luck.
• 31:55
  I just don't think it's good for society.
• 31:59
  So this is what's cool is they're getting paid while they're in the program, and they're free to do with what they want with that money.
• 32:07
  They can put it in a savings account that they can take with them when they re-enter society, which is a good idea, believe me.
• 32:19
  So Fryer went on to say, James Fryer said, we give them every opportunity to learn social skills, skills, soft skills, mechanical skills, and from testimonies, every single day that I walk in here, someone has something positive to say.
• 32:37
  You've got smiles on your faces.
• 32:40
  They always talk about what this is going to do for their families.
• 32:45
  See, that's what I said, it goes back to the family.
• 32:50
  I know that's a strange concept, but unless you've spent time volunteering in prisons, or maybe you've been in prison.
• 32:59
  Until you've been there, it doesn't really make sense.
• 33:02
  And you're like, wait a second, these people are family.
• 33:04
  They're like all of a sudden they're family men.
• 33:08
  Family, it's not that they're family men, it's that family is everything to them.
• 33:15
  And it sounds really backwards because you're like, wait a second.
• 33:20
  These guys put their family through hell.
• 33:24
  But there's this component where for whatever reason, maybe it's all that they have left, or all that they think they have left.
• 33:34
  They really, really feel that connection to their families.
• 33:40
  So Fryer said, you know, they hey, they have smiles on their faces.
• 33:44
  Uh, they always talk about what this is going to do for their families.
• 33:47
  When I get out, you have no idea what this is going to mean for my family.
• 33:51
  I'm going to be able to provide.
• 33:52
  I'm going to be able to, you know, like there's a sense of pride that goes along with that.
• 33:56
  And honestly, I think people need that.
• 34:00
  We all need something to look forward to.
• 34:02
  In the springtime, my wife always gets discouraged, and she says, I I kind of get depressed this time of year because I don't have anything to look forward to.
• 34:13
  You know, it's not like the other times of the year where it's broken up into, you know, every single month there's something different to look forward to.
• 34:22
  Well, this month we're taking vacation.
• 34:23
  Next month we're next month, it's Easter.
• 34:26
  Next month it's, you know, uh, whatever, Mother's Day.
• 34:30
  Then you have, you know, on and on and on.
• 34:31
  They're just all these different markers, but in the spring, there's this kind of long stretch.
• 34:39
  Where there's not a whole lot going on, and it's in the dead of the winter.
• 34:44
  Yeah, you know, at least here in Pennsylvania.
• 34:48
  We got six months of winter.
• 34:51
  Our coldest months are like January, February.
• 34:56
  And so there's just this kind of long stretch where there's nothing to look forward to.
• 35:00
  And that's those of us who are on the outside.
• 35:03
  Imagine what it's like where that's always the case.
• 35:07
  It feels like there's nothing to look forward to.
• 35:10
  There are no time markers, there's no big events.
• 35:14
  You know, it's not like they're going to concerts and going on vacations and uh, you know, going to a friend's house and going to a ball game and taking the kids to, you know, to the water park.
• 35:27
  There's none of that when you're in prison.
• 35:30
  And then if you don't have skills, you don't have a job, and you're just sitting around in your cell, twiddling your thumbs.
• 35:38
  You have to wonder why some of these people go crazy.
• 35:44
  They they get violent, they get irritable.
• 35:50
  I think part of that's because we were not designed to sit in a cell or to be inside to live inside of a building for most of your life.
• 36:05
  You know, I can't stand being inside more than about an hour at a time is my limit.
• 36:12
  I just love being outside because I'm like, man, we were not meant to be inside.
• 36:19
  Uh look at people who work cubicle jobs, office jobs, and I'm saying that as somebody who has an office job.
• 36:26
  Drives me crazy.
• 36:28
  I need to get up and walk outside.
• 36:30
  So there's something to say about developing these skills and working a nine to five job or an eight to five job, and you know, these are long hours, they're hard hours.
• 36:44
  And these guys are learning skills.
• 36:45
  It's giving them a deep sense of purpose.
• 36:50
  And all humans need that.
• 36:54
  These are the things that a lot of people don't think about.
• 36:56
  The public doesn't think about that.
• 36:58
  We're just like, yeah, lock them up, throw them in prison.
• 37:03
  Then what?
• 37:06
  And that's a legitimate question.
• 37:08
  Then what?
• 37:11
  You know, the majority of people are going to be getting back out.
• 37:15
  Then what?
• 37:18
  So, yeah, um, very interesting.
• 37:21
  Pretty cool program.
• 37:22
  Uh, we are coming up on another break here.
• 37:24
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• 37:29
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• 37:32
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• 37:37
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• 37:43
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• 39:36
  Inmates at an Ohio prison facility.
• 39:40
  Build O dot plows, the Ohio Department of Transportation plow trucks.
• 39:47
  Literally every single one that you see on the street, on the road, on the highways, on the state routes, those are all built by inmates at the Chile Cloth Corrections facility.
• 40:00
  And I think that's pretty cool.
• 40:03
  I think it's a great program.
• 40:04
  It's good for the inmates.
• 40:05
  It's good for uh Ohioans because it's a much cheaper way to build these trucks.
• 40:13
  I know that the uh company that I worked for, the local company in in my town, I worked for them for years, and uh they they got some really big orders by Penn Dot.
• 40:26
  And I know from talking to them that they said the the plow trucks are not cheap to make.
• 40:32
  Uh they're really complicated, and and the salt does a lot of damage to every single component, and so things need to be reinforced, and uh it's just there's there's a lot.
• 40:44
  There's a lot of cost, it's a lot of maintenance, and those trucks were constantly being brought back for maintenance, and uh so it's just kind of an it's not a one-time cost, it's an ongoing cost.
• 40:55
  So they're they're expensive to begin with.
• 40:58
  These beds that go on the uh on the back of the the chassis, um they're expensive, but it's not just the expense to build them, it's the expense of maintain them.
• 41:12
  So to have this done at a correctional uh correctional institution saves the state a lot of money.
• 41:20
  And uh I think not only is it cool that it saves the state money, but I think it's really neat that it gives inmates something to do, it teaches them a skill.
• 41:33
  So here's another article here.
• 41:36
  Uh since 1968, this is a local article, W TV 7.
• 41:45
  Since 1968, Ohio Penal Industries and the Ohio Department of Transportation have partnered to produce trucks that keep Ohio's roads safe, with 175 incarcerated workers assembling plow and salt trucks at the Chilliclotha correctional institution.
• 42:04
  Uh the program builds every ODOT plow and salt truck seen on the road, contributing to public safety across Ohio, according to our news partners at WBNS dot uh dash TV.
• 42:20
  Each month, they build 12 to 14 trucks.
• 42:25
  They're assembled and shipped out, customized to meet the needs of different areas.
• 42:30
  That's the other thing too that adds to expense.
• 42:33
  When when you customize the bodies, uh it adds a lot of cost because you have to completely reconfigure the entire plant.
• 42:43
  So it's not easy.
• 42:45
  I mean, this is it's very complex.
• 42:48
  Uh so here's a worker.
• 42:50
  Here's one of the inmates, Frankie Foster.
• 42:53
  He said, This isn't a prison.
• 42:55
  This is a job site.
• 42:58
  Do you hear the ownership that they have in that?
• 43:00
  Do you hear the pride that he has in that?
• 43:03
  This isn't a prison.
• 43:06
  You know, it kind of like it makes me think of Mr.
• 43:09
  T.
• 43:10
  What you talking about, fool.
• 43:12
  Don't call this a prison.
• 43:14
  It's a job site.
• 43:18
  Uh Jorino Johnson says any piece of material that goes into that truck is done with, I'm talking 150 to 200% effort.
• 43:32
  Do you hear the pride?
• 43:35
  These are not people who are just throwing things together and crossing their fingers and hoping that, you know, are doing this to get out of uh, you know, they're they're just kind of doing it to get out of out of the cell and get a change of scenery.
• 43:48
  These are people who take pride in this.
• 43:51
  And I think that's their brilliance of a program like this is that it's a rigorous program.
• 43:56
  It's tough.
• 43:57
  Like you always have to be on your A game.
• 43:59
  I'm telling you, I've been in these plants.
• 44:01
  You have to be on your A game at all times.
• 44:05
  You cannot slack.
• 44:07
  You can't let your guard down.
• 44:10
  It is life and death.
• 44:12
  It's hard work.
• 44:16
  Uming, press secretary for ODOT said our snowplows cover nearly 50,000 lane miles of state and U.S.
• 44:27
  routes outside municipalities and all interstates, except the Ohio Turnpike.
• 44:37
  I mean, that's it's a lot of miles.
• 44:42
  Every single time it snows, 50,000 lane miles of state and U.S.
• 44:47
  routes is covered by these plows.
• 44:52
  Inside the Chilliclothe correctional institution, 175 men are part of the program that builds every ODOT plow and salt truck scene on the roads.
• 45:02
  The trucks start as nothing but a cab and a rolling chassis.
• 45:07
  And the workers assemble everything.
• 45:12
  Uh the work allows incarcerated individuals to earn money and gain valuable experience, including certifications.
• 45:20
  Sherrod Walker or Waller, one of the workers, is working towards his associate's degree and thinks about the opportunities ahead of him.
• 45:30
  I love that they call themselves workers too.
• 45:34
  You know, that's their identity.
• 45:36
  Yeah, I'm an employee, I'm one of the workers.
• 45:40
  They're not saying I'm an inmate who's working this program.
• 45:44
  They're saying, no, this is my job.
• 45:46
  I'm a worker.
• 45:48
  And so they take on that identity.
• 45:49
  And I think that's really important from a from a um psychological perspective.
• 45:55
  I think that's really important for them.
• 45:58
  Because if their identity is tied up in being an inmate, and sometimes you'll hear people talk like this.
• 46:04
  They'll be like, well, what's it matter?
• 46:06
  I'm a I'm a prisoner.
• 46:07
  I'm nothing but a prisoner anyway.
• 46:11
  But here they call themselves workers.
• 46:15
  I think that's really cool.
• 46:18
  Um that's that James Foster, the the uh the boss, the manager.
• 46:27
  He said, everybody loves their job here.
• 46:30
  Everybody takes pride in what they do.
• 46:34
  So, yeah, it's very cool.
• 46:35
  Uh, here's a question.
• 46:38
  What's the impact?
• 46:41
  What's the impact on participation in the Ohio penal industries?
• 46:47
  What's the impact on recidivism?
• 46:50
  Well, here's a study.
• 46:52
  There's a study that uh evaluated the impact on the post-release recidivism of participating in an Ohio penal industries job.
• 47:01
  So recidivism is the likelihood that somebody's going to be released and they wind up back in prison.
• 47:08
  That's what's called the recidivism rate.
• 47:11
  Uh it's re-offending and getting caught and winding up back in prison.
• 47:19
  So offenders used in the evaluation included 744 inmates who were released from the Ohio prison system in fiscal year 1992, and who had a meaningful experience at an OPI job while incarcerated.
• 47:38
  Overall, meaningful participation in an OPI job appeared to reduce recidivism by about 20%.
• 47:48
  The recidiv recidivism rate for offenders who had a meaningful OPI experience was 24.6%.
• 47:58
  While the recidivism rate for comparison offenders was 29.9%.
• 48:03
  So about 30%.
• 48:07
  Meaningful participation in an OPI job appeared to produce a 5.3% decrease in recidivism.
• 48:17
  And the difference translated into a 17.7% reduction in recidivism recidivism.
• 48:25
  That's a hard word to say when you're sticking your head is not clear.
• 48:29
  Recidivism rates of offenders who had high skill OPI jobs showed a 50% reduction.
• 48:38
  That's interesting to you.
• 48:45
  So meaningful participation in an OPI job, I assume that means more than just showing up and pretending like you know, being a you're just being a warm body.
• 48:59
  Meaningful participation means that you show up, you do your job, you put your head down, and you're kind of given it given it your all.
• 49:11
  All right, so meaningful participation in an OPI job, and this is like all kinds of different jobs, not building trucks.
• 49:20
  That produced about a 5.3% decrease in recidivism.
• 49:27
  So that jumps exponentially to a 50% reduction from 5% to 50% for those who have a high skill OPI job.
• 49:42
  So building these trucks is considered a high skill job.
• 49:48
  It's high skill because it's dangerous.
• 49:51
  There's something about this.
• 49:53
  Uh I can't over I get so excited about this.
• 49:57
  I can't overstate how important these jobs.
• 50:00
  That's why when they started with these child labor laws.
• 50:07
  They started crying that, oh well, people are people are taking advantage of kids.
• 50:13
  Child labor.
• 50:15
  So they kept increasing the age with which kids are able to work.
• 50:22
  And I get that there are people who abuse kids.
• 50:25
  There are people who use child labor.
• 50:28
  I am, and all of us should be dead against that.
• 50:33
  But when kids actually want to learn want to work, they want to learn skills, they want to learn how to run equipment.
• 50:39
  I started farming when I was 11 years old.
• 50:42
  There are kids who start way younger than that.
• 50:44
  Kids who grow up on farms, they're running huge equipment, dangerous equipment.
• 50:51
  At the age of seven, eight.
• 50:57
  Yeah, they're running farm tractors and they're out plowing fields.
• 51:03
  I'm all for it.
• 51:05
  Because it teaches you something.
• 51:07
  It does something.
• 51:08
  You see it right here in this study.
• 51:11
  There's a 50% compared to a 5.3% decrease in recidivism.
• 51:18
  That responsibility teaches you something.
• 51:23
  And before people go haywire, and they're like, oh, that that's that's immoral.
• 51:31
  Look at kids with guns.
• 51:34
  I live in a wildly um hunting county where virtually everybody hunts.
• 51:45
  There are kids walking around that are uh, you know, nine, eight, nine years old with high powered rifles, deer rifles.
• 51:58
  And they go out and and actively shoot deer.
• 52:04
  They go through the training course.
• 52:07
  You want to talk about putting your life in an eight-year-old's hand.
• 52:13
  You know, these woods get pretty littered with with hunters, they get crowded, littered isn't the right word, crowded.
• 52:21
  You have to know what the crap you're doing.
• 52:24
  And here you have eight and nine-year-old kids who are very responsible.
• 52:29
  The number of accidents that happened each year are very, very, very small.
• 52:36
  You know, these are responsible kids.
• 52:39
  But they're taught, they're taught responsibility.
• 52:42
  It does something to people when we teach them responsibility, especially from a young age.
• 52:48
  Some of these inmates never got that until they became inmates.
• 52:53
  And when they get that, when they're taught a high skills job, when they're taught how to work together with other people, how to keep other people alive, that every action that they have literally is is life and death.
• 53:09
  It does something.
• 53:10
  The studies show it.
• 53:13
  It teaches responsibility.
• 53:18
  And responsibility is a good thing for all of us.
• 53:22
  And the cool thing about this study is listen to this.
• 53:25
  The positive impact of uh of having had a high skill OPI job remains substantial regardless of the offender's demographic characteristics or the characteristics of the offender's conviction offense.
• 53:43
  So you hear this, it doesn't matter.
• 53:46
  It doesn't matter what your background is, it's the job itself that has a positive impact.
• 53:54
  The OPI experience substantially reduced the large disparity in recidivism between blacks and whites.
• 54:04
  Interesting.
• 54:07
  People want to play the the, you know, the whole race card, and uh, you know, when it comes to crime, both sides, both sides on the political party are guilty of doing this.
• 54:20
  And here we have a study that says, you know what, it doesn't really matter.
• 54:25
  You know, having this OPI experience, having a job, a high school job substantially reduced the large disparity in recidivism between blacks and whites.
• 54:38
  OPI participation seemed to have the most positive impact on males, blacks, offenders between 26 and 40 years of age at release, offenders committed for crimes against persons, drug offend offenders, and more serious offenders.
• 54:57
  I mean, this is very positive news.
• 55:01
  And the positive impact can't be under uh or overstated, rather.
• 55:06
  It can't be overstated.
• 55:08
  I mean, this is absolutely good news for people, and I wish that this program would spread across prisons all across the United States.
• 55:19
  You can't lose by doing it.
• 55:23
  You know, it's not like they start these programs, and then it makes prisoners worse.
• 55:28
  The studies don't show that.
• 55:30
  Not only does it make them better people, it significantly makes them better people.
• 55:39
  Yeah, better people able to function in society, uh, much lower recidivism rates for high skill jobs.
• 55:48
  You know what this reminds me of, and uh man, I would love to get a hold of Mike Rowe and say, look, you got to go into the prisons and start these programs, because this is right up his alley.
• 56:00
  The high skills jobs, these are the jobs that nobody wants.
• 56:06
  You know, the plumbers, electricians, that sort of thing, train the people in prisons for these high skilled jobs, and then get them jobs whenever they get out of prison.
• 56:19
  You you just raised up a lot of really good hard workers who want to be there, they want to work, they want the work.
• 56:31
  So this is really cool.
• 56:32
  I I just thought this was a cool story.
• 56:34
  It was pretty inspiring, and you know, it kind of takes a step back from all the politics of everything that's going on in in the nation right now, and it focuses on something that's that's really good and and actually meaningful, and it's changing people's lives.
• 56:50
  So I I'm all for giving people an upper hand when they get out of prison.
• 56:55
  Uh they they really start out very disadvantaged.
• 57:01
  And uh, this is a helpful way to get them employment and uh and to help employers who are looking for for uh people to fill those vacancies.
• 57:12
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• 57:19
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• 57:20
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• 57:23
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• 57:30
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