Ask the guy who teaches convicts.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For the second time, I’m teaching an English class in Colorado’s largest prison. It makes me extra money to help me through the last few months of graduate school and gives me experience, via the local junior college, in planning and delivering college level instruction. A year ago I taught English composition in the maximum security section; this semester I’m teaching survey of English lit in the medium/minimum security section, and next semester I’ll teach the lit class over on the max side again.

What’re you curious about?

2

i know someone who had a teacher who also taught in a jail. he said that the convicts were the best students he ever had, because they all chose to be there, and if they didn’t genuinely desire to succeed they would never have taken the class. do you find that to be true for your students?

3

Has the experience changed the way you think about crime and criminals in any way, and if so, how?

4

Not really, I was pretty liberal, pro-rehab anyway, which is why I was willing to teach there in the first place. The training made me acutely aware of the kinds of people who are in prison – basically, those who are salvageable and those who are not. We don’t get to know much about the students, but one thing I have learned is that the differences between those in the green uniforms and the rest of us are often paper-thin.

5

Pretty much. The biggest difference between teaching in the prison and teaching at the local juco is that in the prison I don’t have the disciplinary problems.

6

Earlier in my career, I had an opportunity to teach English in prison but I decided against it because I was frankly terrified of every prison movie I had ever seen taking place all at once the second I entered the premises. Did you start out similarly, but discovered that was crazy, or did you start out cool with the idea, or did you start out similarly and still have some trepidations, or what?

7

I’ve never had any real trepidations. I applied to teach as a “contract instructor” when the prison first opened. My father (a retired policeman with a degree in English from Regis University) and I both applied; he got hired, I didn’t, but that’s a wierd story. Anyway, a lot of people here in town work at the prison, side-by-side with the “offenders” – that’s the politically correct term for them – so I knew what to expect. I will tell you, however, that we are trained to be constantly vigilant to trouble, and the process of getting into and out of the prison on an almost daily basis is a reminder that this isn’t just another place to go to work. And, the reason I will always have work at the prison is that the college can’t find enough of its own instructors to teach out there. There is a tremendous fear factor among certain types of people.

The experience has generated some real “Oh, my God!” moments, and in a good way. We studied “Once Upon a Time,” a short story by Nadine Gordimer. SPOILER AHEAD: In the story, a little boy gets tangled up in razor wire his parents have had strung around their expensive, gated home, and is killed. Two of my students wrote “response papers” after reading that, one about how the razor wire separates him from his children and the other about how the razor wire looks different, depending on which side of it you’re on. The latter student has decided he will do what he has to do so someday he can see the razor wire the way the rest of us on the outside see it.

8

What is the class size? Is a guard present during class?

Are the prisoners you teach the same sex as you?

9

why do the convicts take your course? What to they expect to learn and how do they expect to benefit from it? Does taking the course entitle them to any benefits in the jail system?

Do you give grades like in a real school? And why? ( In the real world , grades make a difference–but in jail what difference does it make if someone earns an A or an F? )

Also, what are the differences between teaching maximum security inmates vs minimun security offenders?

10

Wow, I’m really curious.

How does teaching in prison compare to teaching in public schools? Where does your curriculum come from? Do the students get college credit, and are they graded pass/fail, by letter, or by percentage.

Where are their abilities? Are you working with a lot of people who are sub-literate? What kind of resources do your students have - computers? library?

How long do know your students? What kind of relationship do you have with them? How many of them end up being released, and do you ever see them afterward (is that even wise?)?

I want stories!

11

What do you want to know?

Education in prison is supposed to be voluntary, but actually there are lots of reasons a prisoner takes it up, and almost none of these are connected to learning.

One, its a way of not doing other work.
Two, gets them out of their cells for a few hours.
Three, prisoners often think educators are a soft touch, shame really when they find I am not.
Four, Some prisons offer small monetary rewards for every certficate gained.
Five, They have to prove to the parole board that they are making an attempt at rehabilitation.

The literacy and numeracy of prisoners is largely abysmal, but the fashionable educational experts blame crime on poor education.These people have lots of theoretical experience, and no practical experieince of prisoners.

Anyone with any experience with offenders know this is putting the cart before the horse.

For the overwhelming majority of prisoners I deal with, its crime that led on to poor education, they prefer not to go to school as it is far easier to sell drugs, and screw the homes of workers, than actually learn.

Prisoners do not value education, they make all sorts of noises, but when they return to prison (as over 80% do) they have lost all their certificates and any evidence of any learning that took place previously whilst in prison or anywhere else. When they are released they simply throw this sort of stuff away, although one or two enterprising individuals will sell their certificates of education on to anther prisoner who will then forge their own name in. The forgers will then try and use these to convince gullible parole boards to release them early - but we keep good records, and it doesn’t work.
It isn’t easy to respect some rockhard cool dude, with a history of non-compliance, who cannot spell words such as pathogen, cleaning, chemical, disinfectant, or even their own names. It suddenly dawns on you that these people would rather use someone else’s brain for the next 30 seconds, rather than spend five minutes to practice writing a word out, and have the answer for the rest of their lives.

These folk will never ever make a meaningful contribution to society, and they have no intention of ever doing so.

Yup. hard day, with a class full of knobheads.

12

Okay, I’ll bite - what does lead them into a life of crime, if not ignorance and poverty?

13

Is the pay any better or worse than the college’s other classes?

What courses besides English are taught in the prison?

14

This is a wonderfully thought-provoking observation to make. Could you possibly elaborate more on it? Because while it seems some people understand this intuitively (or come by the understanding more easily), a lot of others never quite grasp it, let alone believe that it’s true. So that’s just one thing that tells me you must be an exceptional teacher and I’d love to hear more about the process you went through coming to this conclusion.

15

Education isn’t voluntary in New York prisons. Any prisoner who doesn’t have a high school diploma (or its equivalent) is required to take classes.

16

Can the inmates gain college or school credits?

How long does it take you to get from the gate to the classroom - I mean are you getting locked in and signed in several times?

Have you read Howard Marks book Mr. Nice? He’s an Welsh hash smuggler who ended up in prison in the States and also managed to teach classes. http://www.howardmarks.name/

17

Peers, they do what their acquaintences do.

Once they find it is easier to steal, or deal than go to school, and do life the straight way, well, why bother with school, its hard work and doesn’t appear to make you rich quick.

I have only come across a small handful of prisoners who committed crime due to poverty, in the UK there is no reason to starve or be homeless.

They they are rather like the gamblers who will tell you all about the big bucks they made, and forget about the more numerous downsides, they’ll not tell you about the lost relationships, the forgotten children and the years of prisons terms, you will often get to hear about the £££$$$ they made in a weekend screwing other peoples homes.

Laziness and greed, fatal combination, too lazy to learn and work, too greedy to accept the consequencies.

18

casdave, I don’t doubt you are right about some of these people since you obviously have experience, but your attitude really stinks and is depressing me. If you don’t believe in their ability to learn then of course you won’t be able to teach them!

As I say, I know you may be right about some of these people, but you are crazy if you think you are right about all of them. People can become criminals for stupid reasons, and sometimes it is just fear (and lack of experience) that is keeping them from living a normal life. Your attitude reassures these people that they are who they fear they are and they can never be anybody else. And so none of them will.

Give them a chance or stop doing something you don’t believe in, no?

19

If I’m not mistaken, casdaveis a guard, not a teacher. Your judgement of him is harsh to say the least. Keeping men from killing each other is not any job I would desire. And don’t mistake vigilance for fear. Fear is exploited by every animal, including man. These are men that have already proven they don’t care to live by societys rules,and are now paying the price for their indescretions. I’ve known convicts I could trust my life with. I’ve also known men I wouldn’t trust with shit.

20

If he is a guard and not a teacher then I apologize. I read his first post with the thought that he was speaking as another teacher at a prison.

This was my only point, and I’m sorry if I caused offense. But casdave’s first post suggests (to me at least) that there are only convicts who aren’t worth shit and no others. I just don’t believe that to be so.