Societal impact: leveraging operational excellence in the Iowa prison industries

Abstract

Purpose

Prisons can utilize effective business process, operations management and continuous improvement techniques to provide an opportunity to support the rehabilitation of inmates. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Iowa Prison Industries (IPI) work training program offered for incarcerated individuals under the supervision of the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC).

Design/methodology/approach

The IPI developed an Operational Excellence (OpEx) apprenticeship program that has worked with approximately 800 incarcerated “associates” to help them acquire skills necessary to obtain gainful employment upon release. This includes skills and belt level assessment in Lean Six Sigma as well as 6S/5S events and training. These techniques have been deployed by 22 teams at seven locations across the state of Iowa (USA). These sites have established objectives and goals and provided significant security-related benefits in the correctional industries environment.

Findings

Findings and success outcomes have been encouraging as those who completed the IPI apprenticeship program had lower recidivism, higher wages and more employability compared to the general prison population.

Social implications

The rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals is critical to society. This novel and unique case study reviews one approach to providing work and life skills (such as esteem-building professional and personal skill sets) to support this process within the prison system.

Originality/value

This OpEx program has provided numerous benefits to both IPI and the incarcerated individuals. We feel that these findings could be beneficial to other correctional institutions and better prepare more inmates for a successful return to the workforce and to society.