Employment vs. incarceration

By Larry Witherspoon Jr., co-founder and executive director of the Automotive Training Center

Mass incarceration refers to the fact that the United States locks up its citizens at a far higher rate than any other country. The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, but nearly 25% of its incarcerated population. This is also evidenced by the fact that here in Georgia, over a third of the population has a criminal record.

Due to long-standing racial inequities in our country, people of color face much higher rates of poverty, which is a predictor of incarceration. They are therefore dramatically overrepresented in our nation’s prisons and jails. In a vicious cycle, poverty is also frequently the outcome of incarceration. Individuals with a criminal record have a difficult time finding the employment they need to rebuild their life. So they are at risk of slipping back into destructive patterns of behavior.

How do we effectively address this system of inequality that keeps minorities from achieving the same employment and quality of life opportunities as the rest of the country?

The mission of the Automotive Training Center (ATC) is to combat the mass incarceration of young men and women in the metro Atlanta area by providing vocational and technical training so that they can obtain employment in the automotive repair industry. ATC specifically focuses on participants 15-25 years of age because this demographic statistically has the highest rate of incarceration. The vicious cycle of mass incarceration creates barriers to employment and stable housing assistance, especially when an individual has a felony conviction. We have seen firsthand that most of our students have committed crimes because of a desperate need for funds to take care of basic needs.

ATC’s Entry-Level Technician Program focuses on students ages 18-25, most of whom urgently need to gain employment to avoid slipping back into re-incarceration, homelessness or low-wage employment. In addition to vocational and technical training, students receive life-skills training, transportation assistance, a graduation certificate and assistance with job placement after graduation.

ATC’s graduates are employed at dealerships and independent repair facilities all over the city. Over 80% of the recent graduates from the Entry-Level Technician Program are gainfully employed. One recent graduate said, ”I wouldn’t change anything about the training at the Automotive Training Center. The program covered all the bases for what I do daily at work. I feel more prepared for my job based on my training from ATC.”

Mass incarceration has a terrible grip on our minority communities right here in Metro Atlanta. The Automotive Training Center’s unique training programs have shown that they are a part of the solution to helping disadvantaged youth remove themselves from this cycle.

About the Automotive Training Center:
The Automotive Training Center is a program in Atlanta, Georgia that provides young men and women with technical training so that they may obtain entry-level employment in the automotive repair industry. The majority of our students are at-risk and drawn from low-income neighborhoods where unemployment and high school dropout rates are both high. ATC was founded on the principle that all of its students have untapped potential that has not developed because of their specific life circumstances. ATC gives its students opportunities to grow the technical and entrepreneurial skills they already possess. We instill these values in its students through a positive, encouraging, and challenging learning environment. ATC’s training produces graduates that are more likely to maintain stable employment, become business owners, and have stable family lives when compared to their peers. Learn more at automotivetrainingcenter.org, Instagram, or Facebook.