New IYC program to teach 3D printing
When young men enter the Illinois Criminal Justice System it is hoped that when they are released they will follow a different career path than the one that landed them there in the first place.
GEDs and vocational training can help a great deal, but if these young men do not have skills that are truly in demand then their mistakes in the past can make it hard to find work.
Solution: give them skills that not many people have, skills that are in demand.
A group of volunteers at the Illinois Youth Center in Harrisburg got together and formed a group that is delivering to these young men the thing they need most: hope for a future.
The form this hope is taking is the soon to explode field of 3D printing.
Three dimensional printing is the recently developed technology that employs specialized computers, software and printers to create three dimensional objects from many kinds of material including plastics, metals, stainless steel and aluminum. Lamborghini uses 3D printers to make parts for its nearly sci-fi automobiles. The future resides here, in this industry.
George Jenkins is a volunteer instructor at IYC and months ago he submitted the idea of teaching 3D skills to the inmates at the prison.
"The kids will be able to go back to their neighborhoods in South Chicago, East St. Louis or wherever and when the local drug dealer makes his welcome back visit these kids will be able to explain to these local heroes why they no longer need a life in crime. They will be able to show them things they made in prison, things people will buy, like name tags or personalized combs or cell phone covers - imagination is the only limit. The dealers may end up financing these kids in a local shop. The field is exploding," Jenkins said.
They will also be trained well enough to work in already established 3D printing operations.
Jenkins and his group got the clearance to go ahead with the project on Dec. 12. The 3D printer arrived and they are working to assemble it now. They need to learn its inner workings so they can maintain it themselves. After building it they will be better prepared to repair it when the need arises.
Plus, it is a prison and security demands prohibit Internet connections or machines that will manufacture weapons of any description. So the repairs onsite will have to be handled onsite.
The prohibition on weaponry extends to what software will be allowed at the IYC. There are programs to make knives, guns and just about anything one can imagine. For this reason the Illinois Department of Corrections monitors closely what software is being made available to the students.
"These kids are very smart; it is certainly within the range of the average student to learn this technology," said Jenkins.
"There is one student here with a tested IQ of 160. Their environments are sometimes heartbreaking, most often, limited. There was no outlet in their neighborhood or school that tapped into that intelligence so the kid followed the local 'heroes', drug dealers, pimps, basically thugs. These guys became their father figures and the result is that are in prison at an early age," said Jenkins.
"But give them a marketable skill before they go back on the block and they may choose to go straight and stay straight later on. But, of course it is all up to the individual."
The members of the group working with Jenkins are Dale Fowler, Rocky James, Ray Wallace and Jim McCuan. Fowler and James are both local mayors, Wallace is a 30-year veteran teacher at IYC and Jim McCuan is a skilled Auto Cad engineer. All contribute to the effort from their strengths and backgrounds.
"Our current plan is to have the machine assembled and in the prison by Jan. 15," said Jenkins.
"We have three groups assembling different parts of the project. January 2 or 3 we will come together and make the final assembly," said Jenkins.
Rocky James has had a 30-year career at IYC in security.
James said, "George has volunteered at IYC for a long time. He came to us with the idea. This printer is something the kids really have taken an interest in. It's a great idea and it has the kid's welfare at heart. Education is the only chance these kids have to get out of the neighborhoods they came from."