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Special Populations

Correctional Education: Not Necessarily a Captive Audience!

by Stacey Weaver, Director
Adult Education Program, Victoria College

In my office hangs a framed, hand-drawn certificate to the "Teacher of the Year" in honor of her "flair" and her "ambition to broaden" the "learning capabilities" of her students who just happen to be in a county jail. What makes this certificate so special to me is not the words on the paper, but the signatures and what they represent.

Two students worked together, on behalf of the class, to create and present me with this certificate. One of the students had been a female impersonator for 16 years. He was in jail because his 10-year probation had been revoked in the tenth year. He had been driving under the influence of alcohol. The other student was a police officer accused of killing his girlfriend's pimp.

Think of "typical" adult education students, those in need of ESL or ABE instruction, and put them in a situation where every important decision is made for them - when the lights go on or off, when it's time to eat, when or even if they get a haircut or shave, when they see a lawyer or go to court - and you have an Adult Education "Special Population." I taught in three different county jails during a five-year period; even though the uniforms and names changed, the students were about the same. That is to say, they were completely unique individuals within very special circumstances.

Collaboration is the Key to A Successful Institutional Program

To teach successfully within an institution, the first consideration should be a successful working relationship with both the administrators and the jailors who carry out the daily operations of jail business. When an educational agency enters a correctional institution, the educators must remember that they are guests in someone else's house and to remain welcome they need to learn the house rules. Before agreeing to teach in a jail, teachers should find out some basics:

• Contraband items - items a teacher might typically give as a reward could cause BIG problems inside a cell. Gum can be used to block door locks; candy can be used in "black market" dealings in the cell blocks.
• Chain of command - instructors should know how much responsibility differently ranked officers have and who to approach with different kinds of problems. If commissary isn't delivered to a student, should you question the officer distributing them or the person in charge of commissary?
• Standard Operating Procedures - how students/inmates get their mail, commissary, recreation and visitation, and how they make requests, should be taken into consideration when planning class schedules and activities. It's very likely that some students won't come to class during scheduled recreation time if they believe they won't be taken from class for a visitation.

Without the support of jail administrators, a program cannot exist. Without a professional relationship between jailors and instructors, working within a jail can turn into a highly frustrating lesson in futility.

Special Considerations For a Special Population

To teach successfully within an institution, the second consideration should be applying the framework of effective adult education teaching practices within the parameters of the specific institution. In other words, teachers need to take what they learn about how a jail operates and build good teaching strategies around those limitations. Human nature is such that priorities change as we adapt to different situations. When a person becomes an inmate, the level of importance placed on objects, actions, conversations, and even body language and tone can change dramatically from what people are used to in the "free world." When lessons and strategies are revamped to incorporate life behind bars, students are more likely to respond positively and stay with the program as long as they are able. Consider how the following situations and strategies are more likely to be successful for institutional students than standard curriculum lessons:

• ESL students are at the mercy of cellmates to translate, not only what guards communicate, but also the inmate handbook and commissary order forms. Some "kindly" cellmates have been known to order women's panties and hygiene products for new inmates. Use these materials as sources of vocabulary. Help beginners learn to recognize what the guards are asking (sometimes yelling) at them. Once these students feel a little more comfortable and in control in this environment, they are much more likely to succeed in class.
• Effective communication skills are necessary for anyone to succeed today, especially in the workplace. In a jail, conflicts with other inmates or jailers can easily escalate because of the high level of tensions felt by people who are incarcerated. In fact, many times class cannot even begin until inmates have a chance to talk about frustrating encounters with the system. Effective strategies can help inmates avoid additional charges and are transferable to the home and work environments.
• Use topics and resources relevant to the class. Writing and reading assignments don't necessarily have to be about topics relevant to society at large. When authors care about the content and outcome, they put more effort into the process. Many students can improve their skills while writing incident reports, requests, complaints, and letters to lawyers or judges. Reading to interpret laws, charges, and procedures helps the student on a personal level as well as on a program level. (Be careful not to offer legal advice.) Likewise, math and economics can be taught with commissary sheets and account balances.

Games and rewards can mean a lot to students. If they aren't working as trustees and there's no television, much of their time is spent playing games or sleeping. Students like to play games and competition can become fierce. In a jail, where just about everything personal has been stripped away, personal possessions are very important. As long as items are not considered contraband by the institution, sometimes simple things make the best prizes: paper, pens and pencils, tablets, cardboard (provides a smooth drawing surface under paper), carbon paper, homemade edible treats, coloring books (the cartoons become patterns for artwork), and stickers (sometimes displayed on school folders or sent home as gifts to children).

In my experience, the education program has been used as an incentive to encourage good behavior on the parts of the inmates. They are not "a captive audience" without a choice. Within a very limited setting they have a great many choices and one of those is whether or not to attend class once they have been admitted into the program. When the teachers provide learning opportunities relevant to their immediate situation, in addition to being applicable in the "free" world, the students and the educational program all benefit.

When my class presented me with my "Teacher of the Year" award, I knew I had built a bridge between three worlds: a jail, an education program, and a special population. What happened to the two students who made my certificate? They each were transferred to a "bigger house" and I never heard from or about either one of them again. But, like nature detesting a vacuum, two more students, just as unique, were added to my class roll and classes continued.

About the Author

Stacey Weaver is the Director of the Victoria College Adult Education Program. Formerly she served as the Instructional Coordinator and instructor of ABE and ESL for the institutional programs in the Victoria County Jail, Calhoun County Jail, and DeWitt County Jail, and ESL instructor at the Adult Education Center.