PRISON REFORM
July 11, 1984 Page 7
The University Daily KANSAN
Program helps inmates learn and earn their way
Jack Porter, a director with Zephyr Products in Leavenworth, once heard that the best way to punish inmates was to make them taxpayers.
And that's what Zephyr is doing, as it teaches inmates job skills and work hard.
The sheet metal products company employs 15 inmates from the Kansas State Penitentiary and the Kansas Correctional Institution for Women, both in Lansing, as machine operators. Porter said.
The inmates are brought to Leavenworth by bus.
FRED BRAUN JR., Zephyr's owner, said he set up the program because he was looking for a personal challenge combining business and politics.
"I was not out to make a personal profit. I subsidize it," Braun said, president of Heatron Manufacturing Co. in Kansas which makes industrial heating elements.
He said that when he was a member of the Governor's Task Force for Effective Management in 1977, he visited prisons in Kansas and became aware of inmates' idleness.
"The problem is much more serious than people realize," he said.
Braun then went to work to establish a program to help inmates become more productive. He sold a company he owned in Parsons, bought Zephyr, a Kansas City, Mo. company, and moved it to Leavenworth. In December 1979, the first group of inmates were working for Zephyr.
"The benefit to the company is the self-satisfaction of seeing the inmates learn the trade and skills and develop the work habits." Porter said, "and hopefully make them productive citizens once they get out of the institution."
TONI HOUSE, a staff member for Chief Justice Warren Burger, said Zephyr gained Burger's attention because he had been advocating prison reform the past several years, and because it was one of the first companies in operation after the Percy Amendment was enacted.
The Percy Amendment lifted a ban on the sale of goods produced by inmates. Kansas is one of six states that are now allowed to sell the goods in interstate commerce and to the federal government.
Zephyr was in operation when the
AN INDEPENDENT CONSULTING firm in Philadelphia was working with the Justice Department to identify companies which were willing to sought Zephyter to Burger's attention, he said.
amendment was enacted, and the Justice Department was looking for a model program, Braun said.
"Labor was supportive from the beginning," he said.
Braun said he received the support of many people when he was setting up the
Dorothy Ballard, then an officer with the United Auto Workers, worked with him to establish the program, which had also received the support of state labor leaders, Braun said.
At Zephyr, the presence of an unarmed state guard, in an otherwise normal factory setting, is the only visible clue that inmates work there.
Porter said security had not been a problem and the inmates blended in well.
IN THE PLANT, inmates worked intently with the machinery and blow torches and one of the inmates drove
"But, they can't drive trucks," Porter said. "We don't want them to drive away."
Porter said Zephyr paid the inmates a salary, took deductions for taxes and sent the checks to the prisons, who would deduct $35 a week for housing, he said.
around a forklift.
This benefited the state because the room and board money reduced the cost of housing.
"They've earned approximately $1 million in salary since they've been here," he said. "About 43 percent of it has gone back to the state in subsistence or taxes."
Deductions are also made for inmates who have dependants on welfare, and for the victims of the inmate's crime, he said. If the inmate desires, money can be sent to his family or put into a commissary account at the prison, Porter said.
A PORTION OF the inmate's salary is put into a savings account, which is held for him until he is released. This also saves the taxpayers money, Porter said, because the state does not have to give inmates "gate money" when they are released from prison.
Porter said that although the program
had been a benefit in inmate rehabilitation, there had been problems to overcome.
"This has not been a profitable venture for Zephyr, but I would not say that it was the inmates' fault," Porter said.
The farm economy has declined the past few years and Zephyr lost money on some major government contracts they had, Braun said.
He said the venture also had not been profitable because of the nature of hiring inmates. He said that it was easy to catch up in their problems and better
Porter said there were many hidden costs in maintaining the program.
Training inmates, a high employee turnover and many inquiries on the program makes it a time-consuming process, Porter said.
Braun said even with the problems, he would continue operations.
"I've got my life in this," he said. "If I were to discontinue, I would have done it three years ago."
Stories by Mary Alice Leary
Prison school offers inmates diverse classes
It looks like a regular school with classrooms and a library, the curriculum ranges from vocational training to college courses, class bells ring and teachers give
The only difference in this school at the Kansas State Pentitentiary at Lansing is the use of a computer.
Randall Buford, deputy director of programs at the prison, said programs included the Area Vocational Technical School with the Kansas City, Kan., school district; classes with St. Mary College of Leavenworth; a drafting and computer program with Platt College of St. Joseph, Mo.; and on-the-job training for long-term inmates to provide services to the prison.
THE VOCATIONAL TECHNICAL school is a program with classes in welding, carpentry, apartment and building maintenance, heating-air conditioning-refrigeration and food service. Bill Wilhm, the program's supervisor.
Wilhm, a 1950 KU graduate, said the six-month program gave the inmates a sense of pride, and that he worked with the capabilities of each student.
Students built the classroom facility, including a kitchen for the apartment maintenance students. The carpentry students built glass-walled bookcases and a carved wood door for his office, Wilhm said.
Buford said a study commissioned by the Kansas Department of Corrections two years ago found that inmates who had been charged with murder out of prison more than those who had not.
"The warden wants my door," he said. Wilmh the program also included a class to teach students discipline, attitude and safety; then them to succeed at a job on the outside.
PLATT COLLEGE provides classes in drafting and computers, leading to associate arts degrees, said Marilyn Phelps, a computer instructor.
Rick Adams, a drafting instructor, said the program operated at no cost to the state because tuition was paid by federal grants to the students.
The computer program was the first of its kind at the prison, Phels said, and the 33 students first learn typing and algebra. When they have mastered those skills, they learn basic programming and hands-on experience on 12 terminals that are expected to arrive this month, she said.
THE BETTER GRADUATES are hired by Jensen Engineering, a company that contracts for outside work, and has an office located in front of the drafting classroom. Adams said.
He said that without training at Lansing, there would be about 300 more inmates with nothing to do. But he also said that the programs was not just to relieve idleness.
"I don't think you could justify the program based on giving a guy something to do," he said. "You could build another factory with guys making license plates."
Drafting began three years ago, Adams said, and the 75 students now in the program are learning drafting, algebra and trigonometry.
Since 1976, St. Mary College of Leavenworth has provided GED and college-level classes and degrees, Buford said.
Buford said the prison decided to contract with Platt because since 1979 the inmate population had been growing and the prison was looking for better opportunities for training.
"The inmates are paid minimum wage by Jensen, which goes to pay room and board," he said. "The rest goes into a fund for them when they are released."
Kansas rehabilitation efforts break new ground
The days when prison inmates worked on chain gangs are a thing of the past, at least in Kansas.
And inmate rehabilitation in the state has even gotten the attention of Chief Justice Warren Burger.
Last month, while calling for more rehabilitation of inmates, Burger said that Kansas was a leader in corrections because of the efforts of Zephyr Products, a Leavenworth company that hires inmates from the Kansas State Penitentiary and the Women's Correctional Institution in Lansing.
And that is only part of inmate rehabilitation that has been carried out in Kansas during the past
several years.
"Our institutions are in the forefront," Michael Barbara, secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections, said. "Hutchinson is one the best in the country and Lansing ranks with the best of them."
The public mood is to take a hard stance on crime, Barbara said, but the public also wants inmates rehabilitated.
The purpose of inmate education is to relieve idleness, teach a meaningful trade and keep released inmates from ending up back in prison, said Herb Maschner, director of the penitentiary.
"Rehabilitation evolved through the late 1960s and early '70s," Maschner said. "There was a change in the philosophy of the nation and the courts pushed for it."
According to Barbara, the 10 correctional institutions in Kansas have at a maximum capacity of 4,000 inmates, and an optimum capacity of 2,600.
When prison overcrowding occurs, training is even more important because of a higher potential for disruption in cramped quarters, Barbara said.
"We need to keep them busy to keep a lid on violence."
Jerry Whisenhunt, an inmate the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing, draws a class project. He is a first year drafting
Raymond Brecheisen/KANSAN
Prisoners need a chance, officials say
Prisons are designed to punish crime, but advocates of inmate rehabilitation through education and work programs claim that punishment alone does not solve the problem.
student in a program sponsored by Platt College of St. Joseph and Lansing.
Barbara said that rehabilitation was important because 98 percent of the inmates in the state were eventually released.
RANDALL BUFORD, deputy director of programs at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing, said that his maximum security prison houses about 1,900 male adult inmates, convicted of felonies ranging from welfare fraud to multiple murders.
Rehabilitation can build self-esteem, relieve idleness and minimize security problems; according to Michael Seed, senior security officer in the Kansas Department of Corrections.
"A lot of guys here had one of their first successes in the penitentiary," he said. "That's important to a guy who never
He said the training program at the prison included GED classes, vocational training and college classes leading to degrees.
"Take inmates into custody, but give them a chance to prove themselves," he said.
We're not just here beating people over the head with a club," Buford said. The instruction program is to give an inmate accomplishments and successes, Buford said.
had anything but failures."
BUFORD SAID IF an inmate didn't find a job he was trained in, he hadn't failed because he had learned the value of the work ethic and of discipline.
Discipline is part of what the prison's program teaches the inmates, he said.
"What he learned about getting to work on time, taking care of his tools, getting along with the boss, those things that work well," he said. Because of it, he did a lot better." he said.
"Before, he didn't know how to make a living, so he didn't have a choice," he said. "We say, 'Start at the bottom like Henry Ford did. You may not get to be as rich as I am,' but you sure as hell can do a lot better than this. And that's your choice."
Buford said the penitentiary wanted inmates to perform at their highest level, but could not force them into the programs.
Buford said they tried to motivate an inmate to make a choice to better himself.
"WE SAY TO them, 'If you want to change your life here's what we've got. But we're not going to beat you up if what needs to be the need is time by yourself," he said.
If an inmate did not succeed at something, Buford said the prison would do what whatever they could to motivate him to try again.
"He has to learn to not let that one deal
totally sink the ship," Buford said.
Many of Lansing's inmates did well when they were released, but some inmates returned to the prison, Buford said.
"If a guy has a crummy home environment and goes back into that environment, it's going to be just as bad the second time around."
"If a guy gets out and into trouble, that's not necessarily a failure," he said. "You just give it another shot."
BARBARA SAID THERE had been no comprehensive studies on the success of the programs, because in order for them to be reliable, each inmate's progress would have to be followed for several years after he had been released.
But he said it was important to have the programs for security reasons.
"All it takes is one prison burning for the public to see how important security is," he said. "Work programs are a very good method of keeping security because the inmates are busy. That's how we justify the programs."
An educational channel will soon be added to their cable television system he
Buford said the programs at Lansing were monitored to keep pace with the job market so the prison continually looked for ways to improve their programs.
"I'd like to see the programs develop more," Barbara said. "I'd like to see every capable inmate working six hours a day."
Prisoner sees his education as right path
James Mitchell, a 29-year-old inmate who has been at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing a little more than five years, says that if he had known on the streets what he knows now, he wouldn't have worried about crime.
"I feel smart," he said. "I feel like I reached inside myself and brought out some of the things I had all the time."
Mitchell, who is serving a ten-to-fifty year sentence for a bank robbery, said he received an associate of arts degree in English and is studying St. Mary College in Leavenworth in 1982.
He enrolled in a computer program with Platt College of St. Joseph, Mo., "because anything you do need a computer."
THE EDUCATION HE is getting now will definitely make a difference, he said.
Mitchell said he wanted to own his own business when he got out and knew he would have to find a job first to get started.
will definitely make a difference, he said. Mitchell said he dropped out of school in the 11th grade, joined the Army and got his high school diploma in 1977 through a program the Army had with Junction City High School.
At that stage, Mitchell said, he was going in the right direction because he could have gone to school with government grants.
"I wanted to go to school. I just think I didn't want to go at that time," he said. And he didn't want to wait four years to
I didn't believe in it 100 percent when I first got here. When I kept going to school, I started believing it.
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James Mitchell inmate
start working, Mitchell said.
"I wanted to do both at the same time and I couldn't do both, so crime overruled school."
He was from Chicago and of the 11 children in his family, he was the only one who got involved in crime. Mitchell said.
He said that he had had a good family life, made pretty good grades in school, and got a lot of support from his family — especially his father.
"MY FAMILY DID not have anything to do with me being involved in a life of crime," Mitchell said. "I was the bad apple in our bunch."
He said that he didn't want to get into trouble, and that if he had taken a little more time he might have gone another direction.
Mitchell said this was his first felony offense and he expected to go before the parole board this month. He hopes for a release, but he may have to go to Illinois to serve time for a crime in that state.
"My trial is still up for grabs. Hopefully I won't be there too long," he said.
"I didn't believe in it 100 percent when I first got here," he said. "When I kept going to school, I started believing it."
He wants to go to school now so he can use the education when he gets out of prison, Mitchell said.
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