School Buses are Brought Back to Life Inside Prison

Offender painting a bus at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville While Texas schools are on summer break, many of the buses used to transport students during the fall and spring semesters are undergoing a bumper-to-bumper refurbishing at the Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville.

Offender sanding the side of a bus at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville School bus repairs at the Ellis Unit began in 1971. It is a year-round operation available to any Texas school district. About 50 school districts currently have their buses at the Ellis Unit being refurbished for the new school year. Participating school districts include Aldine, Garland, Klein, Longview, Spring and Victoria ISD.

160 offenders are assigned to the program and they can refurbish a school bus for almost one-third of the cost for a new one. "Their only limitation is their imagination," said plant manager Joshua Silcox about the challenges presented to them by the school districts.

The program averages nearly 100 buses during the summer months with a turnaround time of approximately a month on repairs. Offenders assigned to the school bus repair program can receive on-the-job training certification in the fields of painting, body repair, reupholstering and other mechanical-type jobs.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has just under 150,000 offenders incarcerated at 109 facilities across the state.

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