Adult Basic Education

I dropped out of high school at 17, shot and killed an innocent man at 18 and entered Walpole State Prison at 19, barely avoiding the death penalty. I try each and every day to do something that communicates remorse and to make atonement for the life I took.

In a few months, I will honor my 50th birthday with several family members in the prison visiting room, drinking orange juice and sharing micro-wave popcorn.

Prison life sucks! Work details in prison consist of janitorial tasks, kitchen assignments, maintenance and industry factories. Most jobs pay one to two dollars each day and unemployment is always quite high in the Massachusetts prison system. The actual work is often menial and requires very little skill to perform. Therefore, I have concentrated on academic studies and rehabilitative programming during this incarceration period of thirty plus years.

One of my earliest, though most significant and meaningful, prison jobs was assistant teacher in the Adult Basic Education program during the mid-seventies. Walpole Prison was very chaotic and violent, with daily assaults and monthly murders. The school area was a relatively safe environment and the ABE director, Mel Springer, hired me to work with older, adult prisoners. I was about 24 years old, with a GED and a few college courses, instructing men in areas of the numbering system, as well as learning the alphabet. Some days were consumed with assisting in reading or responding to a letter from a family member, or being able to fill out an institution form requesting medical services.

Education is so very important for individuals to adequately function in our society. Without the fundamentals, it's clear that one is destined to be unsuccessful. The majority of prisoners enter the "big house" without a GED or diploma. In fact, a large percentage has never been to high school. The adult student in prison must face a major issue of low self-esteem. Am I capable of learning? Why should I? Responses to such questions will emerge after the learning process has gained momentum and short-term goals are accomplished. The world expands beyond the 6x9 cell as one increases understanding of the environment. It has become evident to me that authentic rehabilitation will not occur without including education in the formula.

I continued to work in prison education at Walpole, Norfolk and Bridgewater, where by I discovered the rewards of helping others. It became apparent that there were fundamental changes in the lives of the prisoner/students, which was due to the application of basic educational principles. Another important lesson for me was to acknowledge the need for academic education in my life. Teaching others required that I pursue advanced courses and be a positive example. In 1983, I received an Associates Degree in Business and Boston University awarded me a Bachelors in Liberal Studies (1986) and a Masters Degree in Liberal Arts (1990). Although I have been accepted in post-graduate programs, Union Institute (1992) and U/Mass – Boston (1999), the wall of the prison bureaucracy has prevented further advancement.

Despite much success, ABE, GED, ESL and other academic programs are very low priority in the prison system. It is more typical for one to receive tutorial assistance from another prisoner in an informal way than from within a structured classroom setting. A great percentage of prisoners are eventually released without adequate skills to function in the community as a law-abiding citizen. The challenge is to prepare the prisoner for release, while incarcerated, by providing the tools and the ability to use them. How can it happen? There are over 100 "lifers" in the Massachusetts prison system with Boston University degrees. A suggestion is to provide training workshops to transform graduates into peer educators to promote the ABE, GED, and ESL programs. With little innovation and opportunity, men convicted of murder will be able to offer a humanitarian gesture to society and to other human beings from the cell-block. More importantly men will be returning to the community less hostile and more inclined to contribute towards the neighborhood.

Footnote: Mel Springer and I continue to maintain close ties and he has proclaimed recently that he would hire me again, if given the opportunity. Would you grant such consideration to me?

Published in Mass Dissent on 10-05-03