University Participates in Prisoner Rehabilitation Program

Student rumors of prisoners working in George Mason University’s dining facilities are at least partially true, Mason Dining confirmed.

The school has been participating since the fall of 2008 in a program entitled Skill Source, in which non-violent offenders are able to take on a position of employment on campus through their detention center’s work release arrangement.

“These people are not criminals,” Mason Dining Human Resources Manager Marcella Biggins stated. “These offenders have done innocuous things, things like driving under the influence, not paying for child or spousal support, things like that. They’re not of any danger to society, and they’re paying a debt.”

Biggins emphasized that student safety was in no way compromised by the program, noting that participants were generally incarcerated for 90 days or less, that a Skill Source counselor or Fairfax County deputy stops at the school about once a week to check on the inmates, and that no more than six are working at a time.

Contrary to prior statements from Southside that prisoners did not work there, Biggins said that all campus dining areas are open to the program. 

“They could be in any facility at any time,” Biggins said. “And we’re proud to have these folks. Believe it or not, it’s the guy down the street, it’s your neighbor, who gets into a strange predicament and winds up in this situation. There’s a brief window of opportunity to help these people. The offenders are exposed to discipline they’ve probably never experienced before. Maybe they’ve never taken their job seriously, or taken their uniform seriously, or taken their schedule seriously. Here, if they’re one hour late going back, we get a call. There’s an extensive screening process that Skill Sources and the sheriff’s office do. I’m comfortable with it because it’s so controlled.”

Biggins said that there have been no major negative incidents. 

“We did have something happen a little while back, where an employee had insulted a customer, and the worker was not allowed to come back,” she remembered. “That’s hard. We’re making every effort to help the local community by giving these folks a shot. Their job is considered their second chance because they’re already offenders, so if something happens, they can’t return. We don’t give second chances. You have to be perfect.”