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Parent Teacher Conferences and Rehabilitation

Today I had my monthly Parent Teacher Conferences. This takes place for the students who have great difficulty coming to school. I spend about an hour walking to each of the units and meeting with each student to ask questions like...What time is your class, when does your class meet, do you still want to be in class? I have learned that this technique works for a while.
Walking into one of the units I yelled out Cumming's name so I could talk to him and several of his "hommies" made the comment, “Dang dude, your teacher has to come and get you..”. Of course they were all laughing. Peer pressure, and at times talking to my student’s gang leaders (shot callers), really helps to increase my student’s attendance records. I keep my student’s in check and I am responsible for them during the 1.5 hours that they are to be in my class. The GED program for inmates is required, in other words, Federal Law. This of course makes it difficult for my student’s who don’t want to be here. I am primarily responsible for not only them learning during class time but also for their safety. If they don’t show up and something "kicks off" on the yard, then it is my butt on the line if one of my guys , gets hurt, did the hurting, etc.
Every week at least one inmate asks me about the movie Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfieffer. This movie depicts her as an inner-city high school teacher and my students say that I am just like the character that she portrays. I say that this is just part of my job and of course laugh because I don’t resemble Michelle at all. But what a compliment when they tell me this! I secretly smile inside knowing that they compare me to a teacher who cared about her students, wouldn't take their stupid bullsh–-, and make it a habit to try to see the best in all of them. I pray all of the time for these guys. When I finally make it home, I am physically and emotionally exhausted. My co-workers tell me to slow down, that burn out is in my near future if I don't take care of my needs. They of course are right, but I don't feel that I or the other employees do enough. Most of these guys will never truly be prepared to live a decent life once they are released from their incarceration. And how am I to do this when so many other employees see my students and the others here as a complete waste of time?
One morning when I was covering a correctional officer post I had some down time in which I could work on my parenting curriculum. One of the other officers asked what I was working on and I told him that I was revamping a new program for fathers in prison. He then shockingly asked, “Your doing that for an inmate?” I wanted to say, “No dumb ass, I am doing it for the kid who feels it is their fault that their dad is in prison. I am doing it for the child who will never know what is like to have her dad take her to the zoo or the park, and I am doing it for the teenager who never had a father figure to teach him the difference between right and wrong!!!” So, I am doing it for a fellow human being, who made mistakes, and needs someone to model to him, teach him, and show him that he is a capable individual that deserves so much more.
Another example includes my first day in orientation when one of the instructors looked at all of us fresh new employees and asked the question, "How many of you feel that convicts can be rehabilitated?" We all just sat there waiting for him to give us the answer. He chuckled then said seriously in a harsh tone, "Well after 15 years working in prisons, I can tell you that it is never going to happen."
How about that? I sat there thinking to myself, this guy should not be working within the correctional setting any longer. This guy isn't only burnt, but he is crispy charred. I saw him like flakes of black carbon hanging off of a burnt marshmallow.
Most inmates live within a setting for years that is dehumanized. New employees are drilled into them the idea that most inmates will try to compromise them. Inmates are percieved to be slick snakes who have perfected the art of getting one over you. Once you realize what has happened, you are between a rock and a hard place, and then it is too late. The guy has you and now you have lost your job.
What they don't tell us in training is the guys who did make it once they made it back to society, that bandaged their wounds, covered their scars, rebuilt relationships with their loved ones, and learned that their purpose was far greater than spending it behind 12 foot high razor wire fences. How can this system work to rehabilitate? For most I can honestly tell you that it isn't, it hasn't, and the future for these men in prison is just as bleak as the day they entered. And the only thing I have to do is to make sure their butts are in class. Then I am able to rehabilitate an actual HUMAN being.