Spice Program


Wendy:  Hi, I am Wendy Walden. Today I am talking with

Steve Hand, the Director of the Quick Jobs of the Future Program and today he is here to tell us about a program that’s been getting a lot of attention lately. It’s called the Spice Program and without further ado, I will let Mr. Steve tell us what Spice stands for.  Welcome Steve

Steve: Well the Spice Program, the acronym is Spice, Spice stands for Self Paced In Classroom Education

Wendy:  And what does that mean?

Steve:  Well it’s Greenville Tech’s prison re-entry initiative. We have a lot of people that come back to our community that are incarcerated and this program is for non-violent offenders that are housed with the department of corrections that come back to our community and we help them get back on their feet quickly.  We try to spice up their life so to speak. 

Wendy:  (laughs), a nice spice it is. So this is a training that we provide, Greenville Tech for individuals, men and women, who are incarcerated.

Steve:  Correct

Wendy:  Non-violent offenders and we sort of help them to get back on their feet when they enter the community again, I take it.

Steve:  Well we actually start with them behind the fence.  We start with them, they do life skills training. It could be anger management, conflict resolution. There is actually a spiritual component that the chaplains at the prisons are involved with. We get to know them there. We also do some fork lift training behind the fence now and some computer training and some other training. But we try to prepare them so when they do come to us, they can go into other training.

Wendy: Great. Now how long has the training been around and how long is the training?

Steve:  Well, we started with a model program about  2004. We were fortunate to do well with that. About 75% of the people stayed out of prison and now Senator Mike Fair helped us get state funding through the program so the initiative state funding started in 2006 so now we are on class number 8 and we actually have men and women prisons we are dealing with, not just one.

Wendy:  What are some of the names of the prisons that you are actually involved with?

Steve:  Well in the Upstate we go over to Spartanburg County to Tiger River Correctional and then down to Greenwood County is Leaf Correctional that is where the women are involved. And there is also a third prison involve that is McDougal which is in Charleston, Dorchester County because see Greenville County leads the state in people coming back to us from prison and then Charleston is number 2 and then we also wanted to help the women so we have diversity in our program too.

Wendy:  Great, now when you say these are non- offenders, give some example of what an individual are incarcerated for.

Steve:  Well, these are non-violent offenders.  These people, who are incarcerated, could have written a bad check. They could have had some credit fraud.  Typically, the root of their problem is substance abuse, alcoholism. Many have already gone through programs at the institution, so they’re are sober, they’re clean. They are ready to make a fresh clean start. These are non-violent offenders with no sexual offensives either.

Wendy:  Now once these individuals go through the training what kind of jobs do they enter or go into once they are back into the community?

Steve:  Well, food service is a biggy. A lot of them go to work in a restaurant.  Construction industry is also is a large industry, manufacturing and warehousing. Those are probably the four areas where most go into. And the training they take in collaboration with us either behind the fence or this side of the fence in our community at Greenville Tech is, relates to that.  They could take a ServSafe class which gives them the credentials to go to work in a restaurant to know how to safely make and deliver food. They could take a forklift class for warehousing or manufacturing. Carpentry, welding is big. We try to help them any way we can. Computer training, obviously you need that too.

Wendy:  Right

Steve:  But it’s to help these people move forward and to re-enter our society, become a tax payer not a tax burden and to help their families and move forward. And we have had a lot of mentors and sponsors in our community that have helped these people. Half way houses and we connect them with other agencies. See we partner with like the department of corrections, and when they are behind the fence, when they get out its department of probation, pardon and parole.

Wendy: And what’s the success rate of the program?

Steve:  Success rate, right now is around 70 to 75%. We have had more people stay out of prison than have gone back to prison. A great success story, we had a lady who recently came out of prison. We had a graduation. She finished. The graduation was on a Thursday and she came to my office on Tuesday. And a gentleman that works with me, his name is Luis Stewart, he's wonderful, he’s retired from vocational rehabilitation. And he had this lady four job prospects so that week she went in and interviewed physically in front of these people for the jobs the next week she was hired.

Wendy: Now, you mentioned a point, let me go back. So the individuals that go back into prison if you will for lack of better words, re-incarcerated again, do they qualify for training from Tech for the Spice Program again or is it just first time, one time only?

Steve:  Well, there’s a selection criteria so once they are classified by the Department of Corrections and they are close to getting out, within in about 6 to 9 months of their release date. Then there’s two statuses one is volunteer, you volunteer and then when you max out of your sentence then we’ll help you. Others are what we call conditionally paroled. Ones that are conditionally paroled at graduation they get out. And then they report to the parole office, which they have to be drug tested and they have to have a structured environment. So there is a lot of accountability there but we work with them either way we can. And usually a person when they get out, they work with us about eight to twelve weeks typically and sometimes longer.

Wendy: Now you also assist these individuals that are entering back into society find housing.

Steve: correct

Wendy:  Tell us a little bit about that.

Steve:  Well, there is not enough transitional housing in our community or affordable housing for anyone, but can you imagine coming out and not having a safe place to stay or live. There are a few people that have half way houses. There’s a few churches that have half way houses and we try to make sure that those people that are over these institutions go to the prison and talk to the inmates there, select the ones that meet their criteria so when they come out they have a safe place to stay that’s approved by the department of probation, pardon and parole.

Wendy:  Wonderful, this sounds like a really great initiative. Now how many other, is the Spice only implemented in the upstate or is throughout the state of South Carolina?

Steve:  We’re in the upstate, we are the Upstate coordinator of it and then Piedmont Tech works in conjunction with us in the Greenwood community and then Trident Tech works with us in conjunction down in Charleston area at the McDougal Prison.

Wendy: Wonderful

Steve:  There are three prisons involved.

Wendy:  Wonderful, now let's move on to other important matters here.  You are the recent recipient, 2008 recipient of the A. Wade Martin Award. It’s an innovator award and that is usually given to one state college technical employee for their innovation and leadership around education. Congratulations

Steve:  Well, thank you very much.

Wendy:  Tell us about that award, what that means to you. 

Steve: Well that was a big honor. It was a big honor. It was kind of a capstone award of the yearly annual get together in Columbia, the conference and a lot of competition, a lot of great people. Our community college system does amazing things. I was truly touched and honored but Greenville Tech we always try to do the best for our community and that’s what I am just trying to help people too.

Wendy: That’s wonderful and I think you are recognized in certainly the upstate around all the initiatives, Quick Jobs, the Spice Program that you are involved with now. So keep up the good work.

Steve: Well, we won that award for the Quick Jobs program and the Spice Program. It was two initiatives that we have been involved in so we are very fortunate.

Wendy: And speaking of the Quick Jobs, I know you have done a lot of work around that. Tell us about what’s new in the Quick Job area.

Steve:  Well the Quick Job with the Future Program, we are six and half years old now and people that are going through occupational transition and want short term training, its a wonderful option. And many people in our community today are going through this. They are saying, I am an adult and I don't want to go back to two years of college or four years of college. What can I do? So we are a legitimate option. We’ve just added Dispensing Optician class; it starts in a couple of weeks. That’s kind of an exciting class. We had the Ophthalmic Assistant for awhile, now we have the Dispensing Optician. We’re actually even adding more on-line courses. There are things in development. The health care area has still been the hottest buzz but I would encourage people to go into the trade area and also go into the welding.

Wendy:  Welding is becoming another hot, hot career field lately

Steve: it is
Wendy:  it’s really just starting to take off again which is a good thing. You talk about the transition. Do you find that transition is a lot, is pretty high right now, with people having to go back to get some furthur training, to get back into the working world or the work force or is that pretty much stabilized?

Steve: No, I think it’s been very constant. We have a lot of people that come to us with the price of gas, just looking to see how family expenses, a young family a mother has had to go back to work to help pay the bills, people that have had life changes, and layoffs have happened every day and every week. So we still see a good number of people coming to us. But just to know that there is a way to do it. We work very close with the work force development offices, One Stop, SC Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and a number of community offices too agencies that we work with.
Wendy:  outstanding,
Steve Hand it’s always its good to see you.

Steve: thank you
Wendy: Thanks for stopping by and chatting with us and feel free to stop by anytime.

Steve:  thank you, Wendy
Wendy: That will do it for this edition of momentum.  If you have any questions regarding the Spice Program or Quick Job or anything regarding any of our educational programs that
Steve may have mentioned earlier, feel free to give us a call 864-250-8800