WY DOC Welding Program
When the Wyoming Department of Corrections decided to find a truck-trailer for a mobile welding lab, the road ran through the department’s own backyard. “We had always wanted to do some welding, but part of the problem was the electrical is extremely expensive to set up,” said Betty Abbott, correctional education programs manager. Story from the Billings Gazette.
She estimated that the electrical alone would have cost $35,000 to $40,000 at each prison site.
When Eastern Wyoming College came up with the idea of a mobile welding lab, the model seemed like a good fit for the prison system’s needs. So the department obtained a one-time appropriation of $194,000 from the Legislature to fund the mobile lab project.
One of the challenges was to find a trailer with a generator that could power the mobile lab.
“We didn’t know we already had it,” Abbott said.
A trailer, purchased years before as military surplus, was sitting unused in the weeds at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk.
“We opened it up, and, lo and behold, there’s this huge generator inside it,” Abbott recalled.
So the trailer and generator that once helped run a missile site was refurbished to help run a Department of Corrections job-training program.
A plus in finding a trailer already in inventory was that the $194,000 in state money stretched to include not only the revamped trailer and its new tires, but instructional curriculum at four prison sites, gas tanks, books, helmets, welding rods and other equipment — right down to the earplugs.
The welding lab has stations for training five students at a time and will be used at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington. The lab will be rolled out next month in Rawlins.
With the economic downturn, Abbott said, it has become more difficult for released prisoners to find jobs. “Employers have more choice.”
But she said there is always going to be demand for welders, if not at the high levels seen during the energy boom. It is also an occupation open to ex-offenders.
“There’s not the prohibition for a felon to work as a welder like there is for things such as pharmacy, nursing, medical, some of those areas where they can’t get licensed,” Abbott said.
While high-demand fields such as medical are closed, Abbott said, the department is looking for other options, such as offering training in Microsoft Office. There is also an apprenticeship program at the fish farm in Lusk, and the department plans to start a wastewater certification program.
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