Articles & News

January 18, 2009

Inmate education provides new start

Program creates opportunities; participants less likely to commit additional crimes

By: Elisabeth Kramer | News Reporter, Oregon Daily Emerald

Twelve outdated, dying computers provide Lane County Adult Correctional Facility inmates with the means to escape what Deputy Sheriff and Special Services Officer Joe Pishioneri calls the "black hole" of the criminal justice system. The room is little more than a few tables and a single whiteboard, but it is where 10 to 20 inmates attend school, three times a week for about two hours. With its shelf of textbooks and the buzzing computers, the room hardly resembles the jail it is a part of, beyond the police officers who monitor the class from a back room.

"Preparing Inmates for the Community Workforce" is a correctional facility program that consists of three different classes, focusing on computer skills, career and life skills and GED preparation. An inmate can take one or all three courses. Many are working toward earning a GED, while others are refreshing skills long gone unused.

John Parrish, instructor at the Adult Basic and Secondary Education program with Lane County Corrections, helps inmate Bill Harto through a mathematics workbook on Thursday afternoon. Harto hopes to complete his GED and enroll at LCC in the spring term to study welding.

"I'm finally doing something with my life," student Jason Shepherd said. "It feels good to wake up in the morning and to come in and learn things."

Shepherd, who has 61 days remaining of his most recent sentence for failing a drug test given by his parole officer, is working toward his GED. Two months before his high school graduation, Shepherd, who is now 32, moved from Washington to Oregon and said, "I just never finished. I always wanted to, but it didn't happen."

The same is true for a number of student-inmates attending classes who have spent the majority of their lives in and out of jail, missing out on the opportunity to get an education.

Charley Davidson, who has faced various charges including assault, reached his senior year, but failed to earn his high school diploma. While working with the correctional facility's program, Davidson has passed the majority of the five subject tests required to earn a GED and now plans to attend Lane Community College.

"I'm a problem. I wasn't showing up for parole; I wasn't working," Davidson said. "My deputy told me to come to this class, and now I'm doing something that I never would have done without the program."

Shepherd and Davidson are day students, meaning they attend class to help mitigate their sentences, but return home at night because of a lack of prison space. The same classes taught to the day students are also taught within the correctional facility.

"People who are normally kicked out due to overcrowding can now come to class," Pishioneri said. "It provides a connection. Sometimes, people come back and stick around even after their sentence is finished."

Pishioneri, who recently celebrated his 23rd anniversary at the sheriff's office, created the "community workforce" classes from the education program already in place at the correctional facility.

"We've found that when you educate people, it lowers their chance of returning to jail," Pishioneri said. "This program requires accountability because we say 'we're going to show you how you can improve,' but it's up to them if they want to."

Some students already have plans of what they want to do once they've finished their sentences. Bill Harto applied to a Harley Davidson motorcycle program, but because of his felony record, was required to wait an additional year before reapplying.

"With this class, I've gotten part of my integrity back," Harto said. "It gave me a chance to redeem myself."

Harto plans on attending LCC for classes such as welding and metal fabrication. Someday he hopes to build his own motorcycle and potentially run his own shop.

"The teachers here respect you as you respect them," Harto said. "If you come in with a crappy attitude, they're going to treat you like that. But if you come in with a positive outlook, they'll give you that due respect."

Five faculty members work at the program, three at the Richard K. Sherman Defendant & Offender Management Center and two inside the correctional facility. LCC Dean for Adult Basic and Secondary Education Dawn DeWolf partners with the sheriff's office to provide the program's faculty.

"Research shows that anybody who has a higher education is going to get a better job and be paid more," DeWolf said. "The goal is to help people get a job, so they don't have to resort to criminal activity again."

LCC Instructor Cheryl Lewman has taught the computer and career and life skills classes since October 2007, when she first heard of the program through her work at LCC.

"It was a totally different environment," Lewman said. "Since people are being given the opportunity for education, they are less likely to reoffend. Because of that, I feel as if I'm helping not only the students but also society."

Instructors never talk down to their students and they make time for everyone, student Lance Parks said. After two weeks of classes, Parks said he's already seen his typing improve.

"I'm learning things that you'd think, at 53 years old, I'd already know," Parks said. "I haven't used these skills in so long that it's nice to be refreshed."

Parks plans to take advantage of the center's job placement program and the resume writing taught during the life skills class with the end goal of reentering the sales industry.

The correctional facility's program has existed for 18 years, said Pishioneri, although it is only since Pishioneri began working at the facility that the day program has developed. Each year, he reapplies for the grants that keep the classes up and running.

"I'm a scrounger," Pishioneri said. "I have to look around and find where to get the equipment we used. For example, half of the PCs here were donated from the city of Springfield, half from LCC, the computer mice from the courts, and the keyboards from Springfield."

A large amount of funding comes from Lane County Economic Development, although each year, Pishioneri works to find enough money to pay for faculty and school supplies. This year he hopes to also find funding to pay for students' childcare expenses. Pishioneri said other improvements to the program include buying newer computers.

Pishioneri also hopes to someday expand the classes to accommodate more inmates and continue to spread education in a system noted for its illiteracy.

"The students respond to knowing that people are willing to care," Pishioneri said. "With this program there's the feeling of knowing that there are answers out there. That it's not just a black hole for these people but that they have tools to help them get out of the criminal system cycle."

ekramer@dailyemerald.com