"I just try to give them hope, everyday…"

John Burnett is an instructor at CoreCivic's Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville, Tennessee. There, inmates have the opportunity to take part in a variety of programs to help them prepare for reentry including high school equivalency, addictions treatment, and vocational training.

 Programs like these substantially improve their chances of success after release. Instructor Burnett focuses on job-readiness training – skills that are critical to an individual's future employment success. While the skills are important, Burnett says he wants to bring hope to his students every day and help them believe that they can go back and start again.