The state Department of Correction's Prisoner Reentry Initiative offers help for finding work to Edgecombe County's prisoner population.

Roshanna Parker, a program director with the Department of Correction, said the initiative was started by a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor. The money was given to the state's Department of Correction in September, she said.

The initiative will offer job-skills training in a one-on-one setting, Parker said. The training will include interview skills, learning how to look for a job through the internet and showing how to look for a job that matches a prisoner's skill set.

David Tiller is the job developer who will serve prisoners in Edgecombe and Nash counties. He works out of the Employment Security Commission offices in Rocky Mount, and Parker said he is expected to help 110 offenders in the two counties by the end of 2009.

Aside from the one-on-one training, Parker said Tiller will work as a liaison to community employers on behalf of the offenders. She also said Tiller will work to find other job training opportunities for offenders, whether at a community college, through ESC or with on-the-job training with an employer.

"Employment is one fo the major barriers that they face when they're released from prison," Parkers said.

"We're hoping that (the initiative) has long-term benefits, and that people realize that we need designated staff to help these people stay out of prison."

The Prisoner Reentry Initiative is only available for offenders who are less than six months away from release or who have been released for less than six months. The program's federal guidelines prohibit violent offenders and prisoners convicted of sex-related crimes from participating in the program, Parker said.

Funding for the initiative runs through June 30, 2010, and it is only available to offenders in four North Carolina counties: Edgecombe, Nash, Mecklenburg and New Hanover.