GAINESVILLE -- Hall County officials, along with state officials and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, announced the opening of a new welding shop and training program for county inmates Tuesday.
The shop, which was built in a former shower and bathroom facility next door to the current correctional institute by inmate labor, features eight used welding machines donated by Lanier Technical College, who Hall County Correctional Institute Warden Walt Davis said offered the equipment as they bought new machines for their welding program.
Davis said the program, which is an extension of the county's Reentry Accountability Court Transition (REACT) program, will see 30 inmates a year be trained in welding to increase their chances of finding work once released. Governor Deal, who spoke at the opening, addressed Hall County officials to thank them for starting the program.
"You have set an excellent example, and I hope we can replicate this example all across our state," Deal said. "Here in the local detention facilities, such as the one we have here at the Hall County work camp, it replicates what we're trying to do in the bigger prison system with inmates that are in the prison system itself."
The program was started with county funding that was established as part of Governor Deal's criminal justice reform program. Deal said studies done in his time in office showed that the state has had a problem with high recidivism rates in its prisons.
"Some people think mere passage of time is rehabilitation, it is not. In fact, it may be the exact opposite in many cases," Deal said. "If you've not changed them, what is the likelihood they're going to come back? And the likelihood was, it was over 35 percent of our adult population was returning after being paroled within three years. Our juvenile system was anywhere 60 and 65 percent."
Davis said projects welded in the training program will be used for county infrastructure, such as pieces for fire trucks. He said welding was chosen because county officials indicated that it was a field with good employment opportunity within the county.
"Welding kind of bubbled up to the surface," Davis said. "At any given time there are 200 welding jobs in Hall County, so it just made sense."
Deal said the program is the first county-initiated program of its kind and he hopes it won't be the last.
"I think it's going to set the trend. I think it's going to become the example, hopefully all across the state of Georgia," Deal said.
Hall County Commissioners Billy Powell and Jeff Stowe, Commission Chairman Richard Higgins and former chairman Richard Mecum were in attendance, as well as state representatives Emory Dunahoo and Matt Dubnik.
