The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard SB 173, Sen. R. Michael Young’s bill to establish a DOC specialized vocational program. Sen. Young explained that the bill would require the DOC to establish a program to train minimum-security offenders in trades such as truck driving, manufacturing, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. Sen. Young said that the Department of Workforce Development had identified these trades as the ones for which more workers are needed. The program would allow the offenders admitted to it to receive in-the-field training outside DOC facilities.The bill was amended by consent at the request of the DOC to make the program discretionary rather than mandatory. The Committee discussed but rejected a suggestion from the Prosecuting Attorneys Council that standards, such as program ineligibility for anyone convicted of a “crime of violence,” be added to the bill to help define the bill’s provision that persons posing a “security risk” were not eligible for the program. The bill passed as amended 9-1.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/senate/173.