Mabel Bassett graduate showcases success on “Extreme Makeover”

Armed with new skills in the electrical trades, Carolyn Kent is getting a second chance at life after release from Mabel Bassett Correctional Center.

Kent is a recent CareerTech Skills Center graduate from instructor Mick Marsee’s Electrical Trades program. CareerTech Skills Centers are located behind prison walls in 23 correctional facilities in Oklahoma.

Selected to be part of the team for ABC TV’s popular show, “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” Kent helped wire the house in Lawton as an employee of Holt Electric, the company chosen to do the wiring in the house. The show aired on April 22.

“After working on “Extreme Makeover” and playing a part in assisting these people, I found I like helping others,” said Kent. “Now I am volunteering with Habitat for Humanity during the weekends to help wire houses.”

Marsee remembers Kent in her first days of class as quiet and withdrawn.

“Carolyn was a quiet student with low self-esteem,” Marsee said of his former student. “After a few weeks she became a talkative and active member in class. She was the first student in my class to be released and was carrying the torch for every female inmate in Oklahoma.”

For more than 35 years, CareerTech Skills Centers have offered specialized, occupational training to adult and juvenile incarcerated individuals.

“During the past five years, about 65 percent of the students trained by the Skills Centers have received jobs relating to the training they received while incarcerated,” said Dom Garrison, CareerTech Skills Center superintendent.

Skills Centers work with government and community organizations, including faith-based organizations, to help ensure a smooth reentry for released graduates.

“It is critical that offenders have advocates to work on their behalf during the initial 10-14 days after release from prison,” Garrison said. “Emergency housing, transportation and food are often provided for the offender by these non-profit organizations.”

Kent’s Skill Center experience is now paying off.

Only six weeks after being hired by Holt Electric, besides being on a television show, she received a raise from $8 to $9 an hour. She also plans to enroll in the local union Electrical Apprenticeship Program where she will attend class two nights a week.

“I wish there were more employers like Ronny Holt, willing to give ex-offenders another chance,” said Kent. “Society’s way of continuing to punish ex-offenders keeps them from getting their lives back on track.”

In addition to electrical trades, Skills Centers provide training in manufacturing, transportation, distribution and logistics, architecture and construction, business management and administration and hospitality and tourism.

The courses offered give inmates a sense of self-pride and accomplishment often after years of being verbally abused and suffering from a lack of self esteem, according to Marsee.

“Students begin to realize that they don’t have to depend on anyone because they now have a real trade to take to the work force, which allows them to become part of the community,” Marsee said.

Without Mabel Bassett’s Skills Center program Marsee believes that Kent would have been thrust into the world, struggling to find work and make enough money to live on, pay court fees and fines.

“The main reason people return to prison after being released is because the search for a job is difficult so they go back to their old ways and soon end up incarcerated once again,” Marsee said.

Kent is convinced Marsee’s program helped her achieve this success in life.

“I do not think I could have gotten the job without his program and the effort he put forth to go through and find me this job,” Kent said.

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