Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 45

business backgrounder | education & workforce
Last year, the state invested $17.1 million in corrections education
and Washington community colleges served 8,587 incarcerated
people. Subjects include adult basic education, job search skills,
anger management, computer programming, building trades,
welding, HVAC and aerospace composites, among others.
“Everyone who comes into our system should leave better
than they arrive,” said Pat Seibert-Love, the policy associate for
corrections education at the SBCTC. “I think education is the
greatest opportunity for those changes to happen.”
Washington’s prisons held more than 18,200 inmates in
2018. Seibert-Love said as many as 97 percent of those people
eventually reenter society. A recent report shows that 60 percent
of incarcerated people were unemployed before prison, and 75
percent lacked job skills and vocational training. A majority of
both men and women inmates scored below the 9th-grade level
in basic literacy skills.
The big question is, will those former inmates end up in prison
again, or will they help solve the state’s workforce shortage and
lead productive lives?
Harestad’s reentry was difficult. He worked menial jobs,
and kept applying for automotive service jobs. His record was
a challenge.
Education, sobriety and a relentless drive helped Harestad
break his cycle. Between 1997 and 2008, he said, he had 14 felonies,
mostly property crimes and drug charges. He was ready to change
that story by the time his second prison term came around.
Harestad earned a general equivalency diploma and took a
one-year automotive certificate class while behind bars. He got
out in 2010, and after dozens of rejections, got a break when
Jet Chevrolet said yes. Now, he’s giving back to his family and
community instead of causing destruction.
“The only reason why Jet said yes to me was because of my five
ASE certifications,” Harestad told the Senate Human Services,
Reentry and Rehabilitation Committee. He and other state officials
testified in January in support of a bill that would expand online
learning opportunities in the state’s correctional institutions.
Once Jet Chevrolet took a chance on him in 2011, he had to work
his way up to life as a top-level technician. His first assignments
included pulling weeds, painting lines in the parking lot, and
cleaning the bathroom.
“Everyone who comes into our system
should leave better than they arrive. I think
education is the greatest opportunity for
those changes to happen.”
— Pat Seibert-Love, policy associate for corrections
education, State Board for Community and Technical
Colleges
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