A 'Scam'

Justin George: TAMPA — For men coming out of jail, the Carpenters' Workbench Training Program offered a new start.

Everyone participating would get two weeks of classroom training and two weeks of $10-an-hour on-the-job training. Then they would be placed in full-time construction jobs that paid just as well, if not better.

It was a big opportunity for men whose backgrounds make them hard to employ, even in a good economy.

"Other programs teach you about opportunity, but this program gives you opportunity," 49-year-old Perry Horton said on the first day.

An East Tampa nonprofit, the Corporation to Develop Communities, had a federal grant to run the program. Able Body Labor of Clearwater would provide on-the-job training through its subsidiary, Training U.

The first Carpenters' Workbench class came together in January. For two weeks, 18 ex-offenders learned to frame doors and reinforce trenches, their hard hats and hammers bought by grant money. A St. Petersburg Times reporter was there to follow their progress.

Then it came time to get the men permanent positions.

For most, it never happened.