DuPage Co. Inmate Work Training Program Celebrates 100th Graduate

WHEATON, IL — For more than two years, a program being run by the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office has trained inmates and provided them with work skills that they can use not only while they remain incarcerated, but hopefully once they are released from jail.

Last week, the sheriff’s office’s Janitorial Work Program graduated its 100th graduate as four members of the 16th class of the program finished the training. In total, 104 inmates have completed the six-week course in which they are taught the proper use of janitorial equipment and chemicals. The inmates also clean a portion of the jail that otherwise would not have been cleaned by a professional crew, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

The sheriff’s office runs the program in conjunction with JUST DuPage. Program officials credit the inmates for preventing a large-scale outbreak of COVID-19 at the county jail.

“I speak for all of us when I say we are grateful for the chance and opportunity to participate, learn and grow in this program,” inmate Daniel Awe said.

After completing the program, inmates receive their Custodial Technician Certification from the Cleaning Management Institute and begin working with JUST DuPage Executive Director Michael Beary and other local programs like workNET DuPage to find full-time jobs upon their release from jail.

The initial funding for the program was provided through a grant, according to DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick. As COVID-19 became more of a challenge last year, the sheriff said that the team of inmates involved in the program joined a contagion control team and used stronger chemicals to clean the jail to prevent the spread of the virus.

“You have to realize 100 people is a lot of people and our recidivism rate has gone from 90 percent to 18 percent,” the sheriff said in a release. “So we know the program works.”