Dart Shifts Focus Of Boot Camp Program From Military To Practical Job Training
(CBS) -- Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has inmates breaking down buildings to build themselves new careers, reports WBBM's John Cody.
Sheriff Dart says the boot camp diversion program for non-violent offenders has been working well but it clearly needed a change in focus.
"A military model wasn't playing right now, because the military is no longer taking people with felonies, and haven't for years now. So a more viable route for people to go from custody into a career was teach them a skill," Dart said.
Dart joined two dozen inmates at the Dixmoor site of a 23-unit two-story eyesore as part of a program that is teaching skills with jobs waiting for those who know how to demolish buildings and separate reusable materials from the debris.
He says the trainees, instead of wasting time inside jail, are either in class learning construction and demolition trades, or outside actually doing demolition work where jobs actually exist on the outside.
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The sheriff said the trainees learn to grade and sort bricks, metal, wiring and hardware. They also learn to operate equipment like jackhammers, power saws, and in some cases bigger machines like backhoes.
Dart says the abandoned building should be down in a couple of weeks and he believes he'll be able to train about 500 per year so they can have real jobs when they get out.
