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Indiana prisoners to run center to teach job skills

MADISON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – Arizona-based Televerde has announced the grand opening of its newest “engagement center” in the state’s Madison Correctional Facility.

The center, which is staffed entirely by incarcerated women, aims to provide business skills and career opportunities through on-the-job training during prison sentences.

The women employed through the Televerde program are compensated for the work they do. They train on a wide variety of skills including project management, comprehensive marketing stack planning and implementation, Saleforce CRM management and customer service skills.

The program’s main goal is to set incarcerated women up for success upon reentry to society and to prepare them for the workforce.

“Our goal in Indiana is to implement real-world training programs into our correctional facilities to help incarcerated individuals develop work ethic, marketable skills, and abilities that support successful reentry,” said Lloyd Arnold, chief operating officer of Indiana Correctional Industries, in a statement. “Televerde has been a partner of the state of Indiana since 2015. Their work with incarcerated women at Rockville, and now Madison, is helping to create a prison-to-workforce pipeline that empowers and enables returning citizens secure meaningful work and become productive, taxpaying citizens. Our work with Televerde is an example of how business, government and corrections can work together to help deliver meaningful reform in our prisons. We look forward to providing new opportunities to the women at Madison and to continue strengthening our partnership with Televerde.”

The Madison facility is Televerde’s seventh engagement center in the U.S. and second in Indiana.