From cutting deer meat to repairing small engines, offenders at Sussex County Community Corrections keep themselves busy.
Learning a trade or two while they serve their time improves recidivism and the chance they’ll be successful members of society after they’re released, corrections officials say.
In this three-part series, Delaware Public Media’s Katie Peikes highlights just a few trades offenders are learning.
Processing deer meat
Each morning, more than a dozen offenders at the Georgetown facility process and debone deer donated by local hunters and Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
“It teaches them knife handling, proper sanitation and just a work ethic, said Staff Lieutenant Joe Adkins, who runs the job program. “If they can hunt, they can feed themselves.”
During the 2017 shotgun deer-hunting season, offenders worked on more than 170 deer, Adkins said.
Offender Michael Killen has been in the venison program for a few weeks. He has been hunting deer since he was a kid, but never knew how to process meat, and is happy to learn a new trade.
“It’s kind of like a piece of home,” Killen said. “Takes me out of the whole jail aspect of being here.”
The meat they prepare goes to nearby food pantries. Killen says it feels good to know the work he’s doing is going to people in need.
Repairing engines
A partnership with Delaware Technical Community College allows groups of 10 offenders at a time to learn how to repair small engines.
Over just three hours a day for seven days, offenders at Sussex County Community Corrections in Georgetown are learning about routine maintenance for small engines — everything from oil changes to repairing equipment in leaf blowers and weed eaters, to taking apart an engine and putting it back together.
Corporal Zachary Pettyjohn supervises the training. He says a lot of the offenders go on to landscaping jobs after they’re released — and it’s because of this course.
“I’ve been doing this class quite a while now, and there has not been one offender who could not take and put the engine back together. It’s intense, it's quick learning, but at the same time it's rewarding for them," he said.
And it’s becoming a passion for offender Jeffery Dempsey. Dempsey watched his father work on cars growing up, but never did it himself.
“I want to start with the basics in the small engine and move my way up,” Dempsey said. “Since I’ve done the program, I didn’t know anything about engines [before].”
Dempsey says he wants to feed his family’s passion and eventually work on cars after he’s served his time.
Splitting firewood
Some offenders spend a few weeks learning how to split and chip wood — supplying firewood to campers.
A few offenders stand in the grass at the Georgetown facility cutting wood with wood splitters and chainsaws to send to Delaware State Parks so crews can distribute it as firewood to campers.
Staff Lieutenant Joe Atkins says it’s about more than just chopping wood.
“We’re a more rural area so we’re teaching them the basics of working with their hands and things to help them survive and also they can make a living at,” Atkins said.
After learning the ropes to wood splitting for the last couple of months, offender Dennis Baines says it’s something he might consider doing after he’s released.
“It’s exercise for one, something new. It’s something I can take and apply on the street for a new trade,” Baines said.
Sussex County Community Corrections says there are local jobs for people with these skills at tree companies or other local companies that do log splitting.