DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
The job market can be tough, and it's even tougher for people with a criminal record. A program in a Texas prison is trying to help by teaching incarcerated women to transcribe braille. The Texas Standard's Sarah Asch has the story.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Open every door.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Go to your left.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Hey.
SARAH ASCH, BYLINE: Tucked in the back of a women's prison in Gatesville, Texas, The Billman Braille Center is a hub of activity. Women in white jumpsuits transcribe textbooks on computers, while others practice on Perkins Braillers, typewriter-like machines that punch the telltale dots onto the page. Trishele Allen has been at the Braille Center for 11 years. She's transcribing the graphics in a college-level anatomy book.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRAILLER DING)
TRISHELE ALLEN: We make the picture as big as we can for the page, and then we do a key page...
(SOUNDBITE OF PAGE TURNING)
ALLEN: ...And give them - like this would be a texture. This texture here will tell them that those are the ribs.
ASCH: This center started over two decades ago and now employs around 90 inmates. Like most prison jobs in Texas, the transcribers aren't paid. But program manager Delores Billman, for whom the center is named, says transcribers learn tangible skills.
DELORES BILLMAN: I wanted to give the female population a job and a career that would be meaningful to them also.
ASCH: Billman wanted to provide training to female inmates at a time when most prison workforce programs focused on men.
BILLMAN: I wanted the ones that were going to be released to have a job that they could do and make money and support themselves.
ASCH: The Billman Braille Center is the largest of the 45 prison braille programs across the U.S. Prisoners play a big role in producing braille textbooks, according to Jayma Hawkins, the leader of the National Prison Braille Network at the American Printing House for the Blind. Incarcerated people transcribed 70% of the printing house's textbooks last year, and prisoners make up the majority of people certified in literary braille transcription by the Library of Congress each year, says Jennifer Dunnam, the director of Braille Advancement at the National Federation of the Blind.
(SOUNDBITE OF TYPING ON BRAILLER)
ASCH: The program in Gatesville is popular. This year, it received over 300 applications for 15 spots. Beverly North, the director of the braille transcription vendor Visual Aid Volunteers in Garland, Texas, credits the Billman Braille Center with giving her a career after prison.
BEVERLY NORTH: I had always depended on other people to take care of me. And I think that's what means the most to me is I can stand on my own two feet. I take care of myself now.
ASCH: Professional transcribers are paid per page, so salaries vary. But North says annual pay can range from $45,000 to upwards of six figures. Billman says prison braille transcription centers have a good reputation in the field.
NORTH: You know, a lot of the girls that are already out - they will hire the inmates coming out for them to get their start in Braille.
ASCH: North has hired several women from The Billman Center upon their release.
NORTH: This program gave me a life. It didn't just change my life. It gave me one. You don't have to be the same person walking out the gate as you were when you were walking in the gate. And braille can do that for you.
ASCH: And for those who are still incarcerated, transcription work on the outside remains a light at the end of the tunnel. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Asch in Gatesville.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHAMPAGNE BUBBLEBATH'S "JUICE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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