Vohs will serve as the regions’ candidate for the organization’s National Staff Award. He will be recognized at the NCIA Awards Banquet at the Enterprise 2014 Conference to be held in New Orleans in April.

For the past 13 years, Vohs has helped direct KCI, which, under the auspices of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), trains and employs inmates in private industry endeavors.

“Tom’s efforts over the past 13 years have been essential to establishing KCI as a national leader among private industry programs,” said KCI Director Brad Jurgensen. “Due in great part to his work, many inmates have learned skills that help them build self-esteem and prepare them for life after prison.”

The program requires no state funding to operate, and employs more than 800 inmates – approximately 9 percent of Kansas’ adult inmate population. The KDOC’s private industry program is the second largest of any corrections agency in the nation. Offenders in the program learn welding, packaging, woodworking and garment decoration, among a host of other skills.  Participants earn a salary, part of which they pay back to the state to offset the cost of their incarceration.

Vohs began with the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) in 1988, and has served the agency in several roles through the years, including deputy secretary of community and field services. He has also been called upon as a consultant to other U.S. states and to Puerto Rico.