VIRGINIA CORRECTIONAL ENTERPRISES—THREE DIFFERENT PATHS… ONE SHARED COMMITMENT

For Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE), staff come from various backgrounds and take different paths to VCE. Regardless of how they got to VCE, everyone shares a commitment to successful reentry.

Karl Schnurr, Senior Sales Representative

As I reflect back on my work life over the years, I realize how great my opportunity has been to work in the Correctional Industries field. About 29 years ago, the seed was planted as I worked in sales for a company in Baltimore, MD. I stumbled on the Maryland Correctional Enterprises (MCE) once in an industrial park and spoke to a woman who explained what they did and who produced the products that they sold. I was surprised to hear that incarcerated individuals created everything I saw in their showroom. She then told me about their mission and I thought it was fantastic that it provided an opportunity for people who were incarcerated to help better themselves.

A few months later, I decided to make a job change. When I opened the newspaper, right there in the middle of the page, was a quarter-page ad for a Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE) Sales & Marketing Representative for Northern Virginia. I called to see if VCE was the
same thing as MCE and they said it was… just in a different state. I’m not sure if I felt at that moment that I was "chosen" to work for VCE, but in hindsight I think that is exactly what happened when I saw the ad that morning. Being a sales & marketing representative for VCE is challenging, but so is every sales position. Sales is all about creating solutions for our customers and letting them know we care about the long term outcome for them. The challenges that exist for private sector sales can happen at VCE as well, along with the unique issue that can come from manufacturing in a prison environment. But, you go make the sales calls and share your knowledge of the products and services and you work with your client to close the sale. You both win—you get the sale and the customer gets the product or service they desire. In the private sector that is usually enough, and with the sale comes a commission. However, at VCE there is no commission but you do get one more win.

The third win comes in the form of a third party benefiting every time you ring the sales bell! To put it in terms from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," every time a bell rings an incarcerated individual gets a job! Well, the thing that motivates me on top of getting the sale is exactly that… another incarcerated individual gets an opportunity to become better. That is a win you do not get in the private sector. To be able to be in a position to help another human be better is a great and powerful thing. Other than my personal mission to make sure I take great care of our customers and continue to create sales solutions for them, this is my daily driving force that helps me pop out of bed each morning ready to go at it again! The more I sell, the more the bell rings!

After 28 years, I am still ringing the bell for VCE!

Dawn Knighton, Apparel Industry Group Manager

Prior to coming to Correctional Industries my experience was in production and quality in private industry in my native Scotland and also in Virginia. I came to VCE as an apparel plant manager as the locality offered family support with my young child. I thought I would work with CI for a year or so… that was 20 years ago!

While I was trained on working with incarcerated individuals, nothing really prepares you for the journey that you take in trying to manufacture a quality product while also being a life coach for the workforce. On my first week in the plant I was faced with many questions, like who are you? Why are you here? Where do you come from? But the question that sticks out in my mind from that first week was, “do you want us to like you or respect you?” I pondered that for a minute and my response was "I don't care whether you like me or not and respect is something you earn, so give yourself some time and you answer that question down the road. That incarcerated individual who asked reminded me of that question eight years later when he was getting ready to go home. He was one of the lead operators by this time and a role model for the other incarcerated individuals. He said that he thought about that question many times in our time working together and he said it was in that moment that I challenged him and it changed his mindset. He went home and for many years would call the institution around Christmas time and tell me how well he was doing! I always explain to newly hired incarcerated individuals that a factory is not a building, it is a group of people who work together as a team to produce a quality product or service, and for a quality product to be produced we have trust and respect each other to do our best. There is not one person that sets out with the goal to fail or make a mistake. None of us are perfect and at one point or another we will all make a mistake… it is how we confront the mistake that determines the success or failure of our product or position. This is achieved through teamwork, knowing it is ok to make a mistake but to make sure that we, as a team, have evaluated what caused the mistake and have developed a viable countermeasure to prevent the same mistake from happening for the same reason again.

It is the team concept of quality that builds a cohesive team and when quality is the goal, it can be life changing as it does not only apply to products or services, it applies to life… quality is key to integrity. My goal has always been to make a difference in each one of the incarcerated individuals who buy in to the philosophy of quality and to make sure that when they go home they have both the technical skills to succeed in an assembly line process and the soft skills to keep the job.

Telesea Sims, Warehouse Foreman

I followed a different path to my 15-year employment with VCE. I started working at the VCE warehouse as an incarcerated individual in 2006 and kept that position until 2011, when I transferred to another facility for intensive reentry for the last six months of my sentence. While at that facility, I received word that I could apply to VCE as a temporary employee six months after my release. I applied right at six months and was hired at the VCE warehouse in 2012 in a contract position. I applied for and became a full-time employee with VCE in 2013. When a warehouse foreman position opened in 2015, I applied and got the promotion.

I’ve been supervising incarcerated individuals for six years and I run a tight ship with high expectations. With my background, I am in a unique position to influence the lives of these workers. I make no bones about it, I come right out and say prison is hard, but working for VCE was the bright spot for me. VCE staff treated me like a person. Getting out of the building and coming to work in the warehouse was like being normal, something I missed in the daily grind of being told when to wake up, when to take a shower, or even when I could watch TV. I tell the ladies that you have a little freedom at VCE, you learn job skills, and can feel more normal. You can connect with the products at VCE and take pride in loading a truck with furniture going to a university where your kid could be attending.

I put myself in prison… no one else did. I tell the ladies that those “friends” you had on the street aren’t your friends—they don’t visit or put money on your books— so why run back to them when you get out and end up making the same mistake? I tell them to get it right because you come back to prison again, the second time will be harder. Remember the things you don’t like about prison life and keep that in mind as you make decisions on the outside. I tell them that VCE gave me time and a chance to make that change and I took advantage of that opportunity with no regrets.

I tell my workers that there is no “I” in team. It’s important to work together to get the job done. Those new workers hearing my “talk” sometimes shrug it off, saying I haven’t been where they are. The senior workers are quick to correct them, saying “the boss ain’t one to mess with as she’s been there.”

I am there for the ladies, and making a difference by reaching out is who I am. For the workers, it’s being able to talk to someone who understands without everyone at the prison knowing and gossiping about it. I’ve gone back to the prison to talk to the incarcerated individuals about my experience and success but working with my crew is where I have the most impact!