Kellogg-Brown & Root offered construction jobs to each of 18 offenders interviewed at the Stevenson Unit earlier this year. With the cooperation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the TDCJ Parole Division, release dates were coordinated so some of these offenders could begin their new jobs. Though five of the offenders were serving flat time and could not meet the original hire date, Kellogg-Brown & Root offered these offenders employment upon their release dates, which took place later in the year. Trained by WSD in industry-standard vocational skills, the offenders began working this spring on a maintenance job at the Union Carbide plant in Seadrift.

Media coverage of the hirings resulted in inquiries from Holiday Inn and a job fair visit from Central Power and Light. In addition, H.B. Zachary management requested a tour of the Stevenson Unit to consider hiring Windham-trained offenders for freeworld jobs.

"Management of Kellogg-Brown & Root was pleased with the quality of the work the ex-offenders provided," Principal Joe Inman said.

Some of the former WSD students are still working on the original Kellogg-Brown & Root job, Inman said, while others have completed their assignments and found other jobs in construction.

"In the construction industry we need a lot of new employees to join the workforce," said James Jennings, training coordinator for Kellogg-Brown & Root. "We’ve hired ex-offenders before, and there are a lot of good prospects in the prisons for future employees. We hire the individual — not the past offense."