(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Chester, PA) The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC)hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony in Chester yesterday for a new optical laboratory at the State Correctional Institution at Chester (SCI Chester).

The Pennsylvania Correctional Industries (PCI) optical lab is providing additional opportunities for incarcerated individuals to gain hands-on vocational training, develop their skills, and prepare for employment after release.

This optical lab at SCI Chester was opened in late August and is staffed by a crew of 10 incarcerated workers, with plans to increase to 16, who each graduated from a training course to earn their optician certificate.

The men were hired after interviewing with the lab foreman upon certification.

This new optical lab will serve as a finishing facility for glasses started at SCI Cambridge Springs.

The optical lab at SCI Chester will support the local Lions Club because the lab will process donated eyeglasses before they are distributed to people in need.