Virtual reality prepares inmates for life after prison in the US

In your first week of training At work, Tiffany Joseph Busch learned how to do an oil change. “If I had known it was that easy, I wouldn’t have paid for oil changes,” he said. But Busch never interacted with a real car during training. Instead, she learned in a virtual garageusing a Meta Quest virtual reality headset.

Busch, 36, is incarcerated at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) and is part of an initial group of inmates who are learning virtual reality skills to prepare them to pursue jobs as automotive technicians upon their release. For Busch, who hopes to be released in June after being incarcerated since she was 19, the program could offer a crucial advantage in rebuilding her life outside of prison.

“It’s crucial that we receive some type of training,” Busch told CNN, in a prison interview last month. “I’m excited to be able to go home and use what we learned here.”

Although virtual reality technology has been around for more than a decade, it is still often seen as a relatively niche technology, used largely by gamers. But MCIW, in partnership with the Baltimore-based nonprofit Vehicles for Change, which developed the program, is exploring whether virtual reality headsets can make job training opportunities more accessible inside prisons. The ultimate goal is to reduce recidivism rates by ensuring that incarcerated people have a path to good-paying jobs once they are released.

Across the United States, there is strong demand for automotive technicians — trade groups say the industry sees tens of thousands of unfilled jobs each year. And in Maryland, these positions generally pay above the state minimum wage of $15 per hour.

“It’s about getting people a job that leads to a career and keeps them out of prison,” said Vehicles for Change President Martin Schwartz. “If they can get a job that pays $16 to $20 an hour (about R$83 to R$104), we can change the trend of the recidivism rate.”

Shifting Mechanic Training to Virtual

Vehicles for Change was founded in 1999 to provide affordable cars to low-income families. In 2016, the nonprofit developed an in-person training program for automotive technicians aimed at formerly incarcerated people – participants received paid training while repairing automobiles that would be delivered to the organization’s customers.

The organization partners with employers such as Napa Auto Parts and AAA (American Automobile Association), whose representatives serve on its board, to help graduates secure full-time work after completing the program.

However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of apprentices Vehicles for Change could safely welcome into its garages decreased, so Schwartz began exploring alternative ways to deliver the training. Eventually, he was connected to the software company HTX Labs, which had created virtual reality training programs for the US Air Force and later developed the automotive mechanic training program for Vehicles for Change.

In addition to the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, the nonprofit is also testing the virtual reality training program for automotive technicians at correctional facilities in Texas and Virginia.

For Maryland corrections department leaders, the program provided a quick and easy way to expand job training to an area of ​​need for workers at the Women’s Correctional Institution. The department works “very closely with the Department of Labor [do estado] to determine what the industry needs are, where the vacancies are,” according to Carolyn Scruggs, Maryland Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Several other prisons in the state have hands-on training programs for mechanics, but building a new garage means having to find space and bring in expensive equipment — processes made even more complicated by the strict security measures prisons must maintain. Although the headsets cost around $500 each, they are still more affordable than providing conventional hands-on training programs.

“Bringing in virtual reality eliminates any need for space or funding that we would need to build an entire classroom,” said Danielle Cox, director of education for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which oversees the 26 different training programs. professional in the correctional department.

“Plus, they get something done in a few weeks that would take longer if they were doing it in the classroom,” Cox said. “So we can have some women […] taking advantage of this opportunity and actually getting a job once they are released.” Now in its third class, the program at MCIW has graduated 15 women since it began last year.

“There is something beyond here”

Women at MCIW go to the institution’s gym, which resembles a high school gym, for training. When they put on the headsets, they are transported to a virtual automotive repair garage, where they can operate the car lift and use various tools. Upon completing the program, apprentices are prepared for jobs as tire lubrication technicians – roles available at places like Jiffy Lube or Mr. Tire – and for the Automotive Service Excellence exam, the nationally recognized certification for automotive mechanics.

“I think the best part of this – for incarcerated people – is that you can escape this place and it reminds you that there is something beyond here,” said Meagan Carpenter, another of the MCIW trainees. “I want to be able to show my children, especially my daughter, that anything a man can do, we can do better or equal,” she said. “And I want to be a good representative of this program […] Sometimes we just need a project to have faith in us and give us an opportunity.”

But is it really possible to learn how to fix a car in virtual reality without ever interacting with a real vehicle? Carpenter said he feels “100% confident in my abilities.”

And Schwartz is also clear on the potential of virtual reality training. He added that given the need for automotive workers, employers are often happy to show apprentices how to apply what they learn in the digital world to operate safely in a real garage.

“Virtual reality is undoubtedly going to be the way we train job skills in five years, across the board,” he said. “This technology is going to change training in prisons and it’s going to make a huge difference for the marginalized populations we have in this country who can’t afford to go to a community college to get an automotive degree or a technical school. Not only will we fill the gap in technical professions, but we will change poverty in this country using virtual reality.”

This content was originally created in English.

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