News

One day when I was teaching my Writing and Publishing Adult Continuing Education class here at FCI Petersburg, I had a student lie to me.  It wasn’t a malicious lie and it didn’t do any real damage.  But it was a lie nonetheless and, as such, I didn’t like it one bit.

The Situation

We were discussing how advances (advance against royalties) work.  I was explaining that the traditional publisher typically offers an amount of money to an author before their book comes out.  I showed how this “signing bonus” is typically paid in several installments and how it must be earned or (paid back to the publisher) before any more money is paid to the author in the form of royalties.

During this discussion the student mentioned that he once dealt with an urban publisher who had attempted to rip him off by offering him $10,000 for a manuscript of his.  In industry parlance, this was for an “all rights” contract where he would be paid a single, flat fee for the title.  This would be an up-front fee and would result in no additional payments regardless of the book’s success or failure.

Sitting in my cell I can feel the floor shaking.  I can hear the banging.  I can see a man dancing on top of a table in a common area.  This is a typical afternoon in a federal prison; FCI Petersburg to be exact.

As I sit at my desk, which is in a cell which has a shut door, I work hard on an English paper.  Spread out on the desk before me are my college study guide, a textbook on writing by Joseph Trimmer, and a pad of paper with notes across it.  I mean business.  I aim to complete another lesson in my college correspondence course.

Yet, every few minutes my concentration is broken by another outburst which I can hear over my ear plugs and feel through the floor of my cell and my desk.  The shrieks and banging which produce vibrations in my desk and distract my concentration are here to stay.  And there is no one to stop the madness, for the guard assigned to the unit has left his post and is nowhere to be found.  (Note: The guards here at FCI Petersburg regularly either leave their posts or even join in with the yelling at the TVs.)

The sad truth of teaching in prison is that certain elements transcend the prison walls.  Elements such as the psyche of our students and the experiences our students bring with them into the classroom are good examples.  These are the same as in schools outside of prison.  The difference is that our students generally have lived harder, more stressful and more unstable lives than the traditional student outside of prison.  As such, they carry a lot of baggage with them.   This is baggage we must overcome if we want to connect with these troubled students.

Our Profession as Prison Educators

Let’s face it:  our profession is one of last hopes.  Our students generally come to us beaten down, angry, confused, and even scared.  They’ve been sentenced to a number of years away from their families and friends.  They are in fight or flight mode.  And once they realize that fight mode is not an option, they tend to fortify their mental walls.  They tend to mentally move away from the forefront of their existence and hide in their mental recesses.