The job market is tough for everyone right now — and it’s always been tougher for those with a criminal record. But this Texas women’s prison offers inmates marketable skills in braille transcription that puts them in a good position to support themselves when they are released.

For more than two decades, some women at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville have earned the Library of Congress certification in braille transcription, and while incarcerated, their prison job is to translate textbooks for blind students. Many of them continue with that work as a career after they get out.

The Texas Standard’s Sarah Asch reports.

This segment aired on October 9, 2026.