University Daily Kansan
Monday. December 8, 1975
7
Former prison inmate begins new life at KU
By DAVID HAUBER
Second-guessing the future for some students is a matter of changing majors, but for Karlen Kerr, a former inmate at the University of Texas at Austin, it was Lansing. It's a matter of changing her life.
Kerr is one of the first women ex-convicts to attend the University, according to Caryl Smith, acting dean of women. Smith said she hadn't been aware of Kerr's presence at the University but she said her office was interested in helping her.
The pursuit of an education at KU represents the attainment of her longtime wink, Kerr said in an interview last week. She said that for most of her life her main concern had been the welfare of her family. Not having enough money for the things she needed to buy, she has to her stalking she said. Now, she said, she decided it's time to think of herself.
Since her parole last January, Kerr has taken three hours of credit in both the spring semester and the summer session and is now enrolled for 14 hours. She said that because she needed money for her education and to provide for her family.
Her financial situation, she said, is now more or less on an even keel. Through the federal government's vocational rehabilitation program, Kerr said, she receives money for tuition and books. The woman, who was a teacher, loan aid for her, she said, and has helped her find part-time jobs and even the cheapest place to have her car fixed.
There was a time, however, when she needed money and assistance. Her predicament led her to resort to forgery and insider conventions in the criminal convictions. She is on parole until 1982.
"I got in trouble because I didn't have enough money for my family," she said. "In the first place, you've got to go to prison before you can qualify for rehabilitation."
Kerr said she hadn't seen any change in her attitude since she left prison, because going to prison was often a case of circumstance rather than of attitude.
Though she might someday be under similar pressure, Kerr said, she will never jeopardize her education or freedom by stealing again.
"If you get just a little bit of prestige, you lose that if you go back to prison," she said. "There are too many people counting on me."
One of the people counting on Kerr is Kim Cragg, a Douglas County parole officer. Cragg said that Kerr had been a "near model" parolee since her release. Cragg said she was on her way to establishing a successful parole despite a long history of violation.
Kerr's record indicates some tendencies of a habitual offender, but Cragg said that after 10 months of parole, it appeared that she was breaking the mold of her previous life.
Cragg said there was a type of offender who repeated crimes habitually and was unable to stay out of prison. These offenders were kept within two months of their releases, he said.
"Some people are institutionalized and say, 'I want to go back to (to prison),'" Crags told me. "They don't care."
"After so long, some people come to realize they're sick and tired of being sick and tired. A change comes from inside and outside. A change in course of action they are going to take."
"The person who has the most say in a parolee's life is the parolee."
Discrimination . . .
From nage one
$805 less than the five men professors,
whose average is 2.4.
One woman recreation supervisor, classified as an instructor with 7.0 years-in-rank, is paid $86 less than the two men instructors with the same average years-in-rank.
Lelion Caps, chairman of the department, said the averages were distorted in the sample.
The two women therefore have salaries in relation to their individual merit, Capps
In the department of curriculum and instruction the two women associate professors, who average 5.5 years-in-rank, are paid $1,741 less than the four men associate professors, with the same average years-in-rank.
Referring to the $1,741 difference between associate professors with the same years-in-rank, Capps said, "If I were asked to defend it, I'd would defend it on the basis of production."
"I'd say we virtually eliminated inequities due to factors other than merit," he said.
Mertis is the only factor that accounts for the differences between men's and women's salaries in the School of Education, according to Dale Scannell, dean of the school.
One of the two women associate was recently appointed, consequently her salary increased. She reported (ORP reported salaries and rank of individual at the level that person attained as of July 1, 1975). The other woman, who has been married for years, "isn't that productive," Copa said.
The Affirmative Action office identified three other areas in which women, with more or the same years-in-rank were paid less than men, Patton said.
In the School of Fine Arts, there are two
such areas; applied music and design, Patton said.
In applied music, the one woman associate professor who has 5.0 years-in-rank is paid $72 less than the five men associate educators, who average 3.0 years-in-rank.
At the assistant professor level in applied music, the four women, who average 4.5 years-in-rank, are paid $721 less than the eight men, who have the same average.
In design, the one woman professor who has 12.9 years in-rank is paid $728 less than the six men professors, who average 11.5 years in-rank.
In the School of Social Welfare, the four women associate professors, who average 7.0 years-in-rank, earn $277 less than the five men associate professors, who average 5.25 years-in-rank.
On the basis of these departmental differences, Caliphate said "IT may mean that there is sex discrimination taking place; it means that the women are less meritorious."
But Patton disagreed. Because women are paid less than men "across the board," the implication is that women are commonly less mentorship than men, Patton said.
Another person who is counting on Kerr's success in school, is Dainne Mdermott, Kerr's sponsor, who has been a "good friend" to Kerr, Cragg said.
And because salary differences between men and women are, in many cases, increasing the second implication is that men are getting less meritorious, she said.
Crang said that not all parolees had the advantage of a sponsor, especially one like Craig.
McDermott is an assistant professor of counseling. Her brother is Bill Sands, the organizer of an all-prisher group called the Seventh Step Foundation, a rehabilitation system that has reduced the recidivism rate of prisoners. McDermott said.
Patton rejects both implications.
McDermott met Kerr at a Seventh Step meeting at which, she said, people from outside the prison could meet people inside the prison. From there, she said, they developed a relationship that resulted in McDermott's sponsorship of Kerr.
A sponsorship, according to Craig, includes moral support, help finding a house, housing credit
McDermott said, "Basically, Karlene is a very good person; she has had a rough life. She's very, very bright. I think she's one of the hardest working people I've seen. This is the first time she has had an opportunity to do anything with her own life.
One of the tenets of the Seventh Step Foundation is to build on weaknesses and enhance strengths. That's a principle Kerr has taken to heart.
Kerr said she didn't see much help for programs coming from the institutional programs.
"In a sense, she's finally becoming a liberated women."
"I need to get all on the positive side of me to counter all of my negative side," she said.
"It's just almost automatic that anything the institution introduces won't work. It (Seventh Step) is the only thing that stands in the chance of rehabilitation convicts," she said.
"When I first went to prison, I had a husband and four dollars. When got out it had ten thousand dollars."
Kerr is expecting her husband, Willard, to be released from Lansing's prison for men that have been convicted.
Both she and her husband got into trouble when they were separated from each other, when they met.
"He thinks it's a nut," he said. "He can't say any reason for it. Behind that is a fear of being hurt."
Kerr said her husband thought differently than she about her schooling.
"If we can stay together, we can stay out of jail!" she said.
Kerr said she probably wouldn't have to work because her husband was a stationary fireman. However, she said that she would also herself "titting home in a rocking chair."
Kerr said she often did Algebra homework with her two daughters, 14 and 16. She said she was trying to get a third-daughter to come to KU.
Algebra, Kerr said, is something they have "all over the place" in her family's Stouffer apartment. There isn't as much room as she would like, she admits. Up the hill from her apartment, though, are places of similarities to her previous life are unnerving.
"I can't imagine anyone coming out of a prison wanting to live in a dorm in college. There's just too much similarity," she said, pointing to the other room where she is to the door rather than somebody else."
Kerr wants to see facts about former prisoners get more publicity, she said, to counter depictions of ex-convicts that appear in movies and on TV.
"Most people think prisoners are interested in getting back at the world," she said. Most prisoners aren't like that. They're scared. They have a lot of problems. They ought to send those people to prison that make the movies.
"They're going to have to learn we're just people, not just ex-vincicts."
Kerr said her major in college was computer science, because "computers are very useful" to her.
"I don't like the unpredictability of people," she said. ("In prison) you spend months figuratively looking over your shoulder wondering what's coming next."
Of all her classes, Sociology, Greek ane
Roman Mythology, English and Algebra-
Trigonometry, Kerr said she was most
outspoken in English.
I love to argue with English teachers. I love English, "Kerr said." I love to read but I hate it.
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Science fiction books have a certain fascination for her, she said, because they employ imagination and try to secondguess the future. That idea is reflected in a sign in the first floor alcove at Watson Library where Kerr works at the circulation desk: "If you don't change your future, you're going to have to endure it."
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"I kind of like that sign." she said.
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