BOISE, Idaho — A unique program that partners with the South Boise Women's Correctional Center is giving inmates dress clothes that will help them get a fresh start when they are released from jail.
The program, Boise Dress for Success, helps these incarcerated women put their best foot forward with clothes they'll need to wear to an interview and hopefully land a new job.
On Sunday, low-risk offenders got the chance to change out of their jailhouse scrubs and slip into professional attire.
"We provide low-income women or women re-entering the workforce with interview clothes, a way to really put their best foot forward," Executive Director Rachel Flichel said.
Flichel and her team pick out a specific outfit for each inmate based on their size and then bring the clothes to the correctional center where the women put their own twist on it.
RELATED: Strangers line fence between two Boise homeless shelters with scarves for those that need it
She said the confidence of wearing the right clothes going into an interview is "going to give you a better shot at whatever job or whatever change you are trying to make."
The center's warden said the confidence the women gain with these clothes makes a world of difference.
"They completely transform just to watch their faces when they put on their business suit and they walk out and look into the mirror and get a taste of what their potential is and their confidence level just skyrockets," said Warden Liz Nevile.
She said a new outfit may seem small compared to what these women are up against, but business clothes can make all the difference when they need a fresh start.
"This is just one way that we are trying to prepare them for what's to come and what their potential is," she said.
Jennifer Henkel, who was a hairstylist before she found herself at the corrections facility, said without the Boise Dress for Success program, she wouldn't have access to the right outfit that could land her a newt job.
"I wouldn't put this together but I love it, it's one of those outfits I have always wanted to dress like those people, I'm like, 'How do they do that? How did they put that together?'" she said. "And having someone else do that for me just shows me how it can be done."
After helping these women get a head start on the next chapter of their lives and find their true potential, Flichel said she feels a strong connection to these women.
"For us to come here and build a relationship with them and be able to hug them and make them feel special, they feel like we are friends now," she said. "To me, that's just powerful because we all know that feeling when you buy something new, you put something on you just feel so good in, it's like you think, 'Oh, I can go do this now or that now.'"