The North Carolina Department of Transportation recently assigned five former convicts – who completed the department’s “On the Job” training program – to jobsites in the Raleigh area.
The five graduates are the first to complete NCDOT’s academy, part of an executive order signed in January 2024 by former Governor Roy Cooper that directed state departments to improve reentry services for formerly incarcerated people having trouble finding jobs.
NCDOT’s Transitional Work Pilot program aims to ease the transition for former convicts into the transportation workforce, as well as better prepare them for life after incarceration.
NCDOT’s Deputy Secretary for Business Administration Ebony Pittman said former convicts face a lower callback rate from potential employers and that the program provides these workers with “a meaningful pathway to both short-term and long-term employment.”
The five workers who graduated from the two-week program on May 2 were trained on such tasks as operating heavy equipment, directing traffic and surveying property. NCDOT collaborated with the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction to find individuals interested in the program.
The former convicts received a mix of classroom and hands-on learnings, and all five were hired to do on-site construction work after an interview.
A key part of the program includes streamlining former convicts’ ability to get identification cards to access housing, employment and healthcare. The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles has reinforced efforts to get convicts state ID cards ahead of their release.
Another facet of NCDOT’s effort includes a $274,000 contract awarded by NCDOT staff to the Center for Employment Opportunities, which will go toward screening former convicts for work eligibility and fitness. Qualified individuals receive PPE, such as steel-toed boots, and free transportation to and from work sites.
This collaboration with the center allows NCDOT to provide former convicts with daily maintenance work, including cleaning up roadside litter and traffic control. The workers are then assessed for future employment.
