More of this, please: Vocational training for prisoners facilitates jobs on reentry

Prison trusties in Hondo participate in get on-the-job kitchen training at a community food bank, with many hired as cooks upon release. Reported the SA Express-News ("Inmate cooks give back at food bank," Feb. 5):

Most employers are turned off by ex-convict applicants, [TDCJ laundry, food and supply director Tony  D'Cunha] said, but hiring from this program has been “exceptional.”

“This can be a model for food banks nationwide, where the prison system gives back to the community by returning (inmates) to society as taxpaying citizens,” D'Cunha said.

Want to reduce recidivism and long-term costs for incarceration and crime?  More than anything else, transitioning ex-offenders into the workforce makes the rest possible. It'd be nice to see this program not just continued  but scaled up.