As I was writing Education Behind Bars: A Win-Win Strategy for Maximum Security, I was focused on making it the best book possible. Not only the best book possible, but a better book than my perceived competition’s titles. At the time, I was a fool. Now that I’m enjoying a bit of occupational prestige, I
Poetry, Classical Literature, African American Literature, Art and the Mind, Multi-Media Art—these are a few of the courses offered to inmates at 12 correctional facilities throughout the state of Alabama. In conjunction with Auburn University in Alabama and the Caroline Marshall Draughton Center for the Arts & Humanities, theAlabama Prison Arts + Education Projectoffers prisoners
The first college course I ever enrolled in was an English course. I took it because it was a logical choice. After all, every course in college requires some level of reading comprehension. I thought that the course would be challenging because it was a college course, but I didn’t think that there would be areas of which I was unfamiliar. I was wrong.
As my study guide and textbook arrived, I jumped right on in. At once I was pushing through essays and reading assignments. Writing has always come easy to me, so I thought I was made. Then along came a citation issue.
The issue was that I didn’t know how to cite sources, effectively paraphrase, or even productively research. I just never had to do this in high school. It certainly didn’t help that I went to prison when I was a senior in high school. Regardless, I didn’t graduate from high school and, thus, had obviously missed several of the important lessons. Instead of graduating before I went to prison, I earned a GED in prison.*1
About six months ago a gentleman from my housing unit, here at FCI Petersburg, earned his GED. He was very proud of this accomplishment — as was I — and wanted desperately to continue on with his studies. The gentleman had heard that I wrote a book about prison education — Education Behind Bars: A Win-Win Strategy for Maximum Security — so he came to me to find information regarding correspondence programs open to inmates. We discussed his interests, aspirations, and financial backing.
To my surprise, this man was interested in becoming a veterinary assistant/technician. This surprised me because he honestly didn’t act or seem like someone who cared about animals; not that animal lovers look any certain way. To tell you the truth, he’s one of the loud and obnoxious ones in my housing unit. So, I was surprised in his interest in continuing his education. Those who act the way he does typically are more focused on less productive habits in prison. Needless to say, I was enthralled with his aspiration.
Being incarcerated is life changing–no one can disagree with that. What a prisoner chooses to do with his or her time in prison can alter the course of not only their lives, but the lives of loved ones, family, friends and community. Many inmates that are incarcerated lack the basic necessary skills to read or communicate
Many schools will profess a desire to educate incarcerated students. To not do so would be almost unethical, alhough few schools will modify programs to make them more prisoner-friendly. Hobe Sound Bible College is one school which is not only willing to go the extra mile for the incarcerated student, but has put their money where their mouth is.
Hobe Sound Bible College, founded in 1960, is a religious college out of Hobe Sound, Florida which offers courses in a correspondence methodology. Accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), they are a respected Christian college even though they do not hold regional accreditation.
Hobe Sound Bible College did something which both shocked me and immediately won me to their cause. They put their money where their mouth is. They literally offer prisoner-students a discounted tuition rate of $75 per course; a $245 discount! This places them at the bottom of the spectrum in tuition costs for college-level correspondence courses.
The sound of violins and cellos fills the room with beautiful string music and this coming from a women’s orchestra where many of the players had no previous musical training, and who also happen to be prisoners incarcerated at Hiland Mountain Women’s Correctional Center outside of Anchorage, Alaska. Founded in 2004 by the nonprofit organization, Arts
Many inmates write. They write novels, plays, screenplays, short stories, etc. Some want to be published. Finding an agent is a daunting task for anyone, and especially so for someone in prison. Here’s a suggestion: why not act as your own agent?
Here’s how to do it:
In today’s world, commonplace wisdom states that you need a literary agent if you want to be published. So authors spend lots of time sending out query letters and/or proposals to literary agents. Sixty percent of agents don’t even read the queries, they just shoot back a standard rejection letter. Another 38 percent of agents either have a stable of authors that is already full, or they specialize in a genre that is different from what you write. Which means about two percent of all literary agents might be interested in taking on new authors.
So what do you do?
Partakers College Behind Bars program provides opportunities for incarcerated inmates in the state of Massachusetts to obtain four-year college degrees while doing time in prison. Their mission statement says that Partakers “works to help advance the rehabilitation of inmates and to bridge the divide that separates those inside and outside prison. Through it’s College Behind
Before coming to prison I had never used a typewriter. I had seen them in movies, on TV, even my Dad’s office had one for filling out forms, but I had never used one. This is because I’m 26 years old and for the past 15 to 20 years word processors have ruled the data processing field.
Sadly, this is not the case in America’s prisons. Here at FCI Petersburg, a medium security federal prison in Petersburg, Virginia which has an inmate population of 1,835 inmates, there are a total of 9 typewriters, 3 of which are significantly in need of repair or replacement. In order to operate any of the 6 fully-operable typewriters, an inmate must purchase required supplies. This amounts to around $35 in initial supplies, plus an additional $7.75 per week in ribbon costs, too, for those who type as much as I do.
Outside of prison, $7.75 or even $35 is not a huge deal. But when the inmate only makes $5.25 per month, it is a huge obstacle. In fact, it can be cost prohibitive. Thus enters the question of word processors for inmates.