At the Diboll Correctional Center, in Diboll, Texas, the administration spends a great deal of time and energy trying to provide as many programming opportunities as they can.

“We spend this kind of time, in terms of programming,” explains Warden Lepher Jenkins, “because these young men, as part of their debt to society, it’s our goal to give them an opportunity to be a better person.”

The programming opportunities provided give the men purpose. Ervin Effler is a Diboll resident.

“Usually, our choices are, ‘well, am I going to wear my shoes or my boots’,” says Mr. Effler, “but here we have choices about different classes we can take; just different things I think is getting us more prepared for the world.”

One of the opportunities available at the facility is the National Center for Construction Education & Research, or NCCER, carpentry certification program.

“With the NCCER card,” resident student Justin Mackey states, “it just gives me a little bit more to work with on a resume or anything else when I come out.”

Fellow student Timothy Boshart agrees. “Well, I already had the knowledge, but I didn’t have the documentation to prove it. And now I got both.”

Noah Luman is the course instructor. “It’s a national certification,” he says, “it follows them wherever they go. We receive reports back from them even years after they’ve been out into the free world. They will check back into the unit, just to let us know that they are doing well, that they’re succeeding in life and that the program was a great help to them. So, that kinda keeps you built up, wanting to do a little more, for a little longer.”

Warden Jenkins explains his perspective. “This incarceration is a temporary process; a temporary condition, if you will. They’ll eventually get out, and I’m a firm believer that if we continue to do the same thing we’ve always done, you’ll continue to get the same result you’ve always gotten. So, we’re giving them a different opportunity to change their lives, to be a better person, and to be a better father, a better son, a better citizen.”