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University Daily Kansan
Closer Look
Fridav. Nov. 15, 1985
LEAVENWORTH — At right, Dean Braa, graduate teaching assistant in sociology, jokes with an inmate during a break in one of his evening classes. Below, gun towers, fences and barbed wire serve as constant reminders that the continuing education classes take place inside the walls of a maximum security prison.
Convicts
Classes in the prison require as much reading, note-taking and discussion as classes on the Lawrence campus.
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1953. The classes were mostly basic liberal arts courses such as English, algebra and history.
algebra and calculus.
"When the federal program got started in 1980, it gave the inmates a chance to work on a degree and guaranteed the opportunity for majors." May said. "It was fortunate that the dominant request was for sociology or psychology majors, because they require a minimum amount of laboratory course work.
"Also, those courses have the potential for helping them when they get out and helping them to know why they got there. Their interest in sociology and psychology grew out of their situation."
In 1980, KU signed its first contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for about $20,000. By this year that had increased to $44,000.
The federal contract, combined with additional grants and scholarships, which the inmates must obtain in order to pay for the courses, allow KU's departments of sociology and psychology to offer 10 classes a year to inmates at the prison. KU offers four classes in the fall, four in the spring and two in the summer.
Kansas City, Kan., Community College also has been offering classes at the federal prison. When KU signed its federal contract, KCCK expanded its program to teach all the liberal arts college courses. This
cooperation between the two institutions meant that KU only would have to offer classes in sociology or psychology.
McNall said different courses were offered each semester depending on what had been offered in the past, what was needed to fulfill the degree requirements and which faculty members were available.
This semester, for example, KU offers: SOC 304, Principles of Sociology; SOC 500, Sociological Theory; PSYC 492, Psychology and Social Issues; and PSYC 318, Cognitive Psychology.
Classes are offered from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays in the educational wing of the penitentiary. Only inmates who are in educational programs may go into the wing, but once they get there, their movements are relatively unrestricted. In fact, the constant bustle is almost chaotic.
Teachers may start classes with only half the students in class. Slowly the seats fill, but students constantly get up for a cup of coffee, a smoke or a stretch.
"It's like the Twilight Zone," said Susan Winslow, a KU lecturer in psychology at Leavenworth. "All the rules for how you normally conduct yourself are left behind. I've gotten used to it."
Winslow said she was nervous the
first time she taught at Leavenworth because of warnings that guards gave to all new instructors. The guards warned teachers that the inmates were all "cutthroats" and "con artists."
"I was expecting to see this class full of thugs with tattoos halfway up their arms and cigarette packs rolled up into short shirt sleeves." Winslow said.
Then I walked into the classroom.
and the guys looked just like anybody else. When I started teaching, I discovered that a lot of them were very smart. Once I realized I had control of the class, it was much easier. But it's like getting through culture shock."
The loose structure has little relationship to students' preparedness for class, Braa said, and frequently the inmates are more prepared than regular students.
"Generally, there's been a little more motivation to do well," he said. "More students are interested in class and in the lecture because they're older and have a vested interest to do something constructive while they're here."
Garrison said the average age of the inmates was more than 36, and the average length of stay was 15 years. Nearly 300 of the 1,100 inmates are involved with the educational program this semester.
Students pursuing the KU program must meet the same requirements as students on the Lawrence campus. The inmate may earn a bachelor of general studies in sociology or psychology, a bachelor of arts in sociology or psychology or a master of arts in sociology.
McNall said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons paid $1,000 for the transportation expenses of professors teaching master's courses at Leavenworth. Salaries for the master's course teachers were not included in the federal contract.
"We run the program out of our back pockets," McNall said, "We enjoy it. They're some of the best students we have. They're interested in learning, they're prepared for class and they participate in class. It's very rewarding."
McNall said seven inmates took graduate courses this semester. Most
graduate courses consisted of master's-level readings and conferences.
Like any other college students, inmates may apply for Pell Grants to defray tuition costs. Inmates pay an in-state tuition rate, which is $615 this year. The requirements for Pell Grants are no different: they must remain full-time students with a 2.0 grade point average. About 85 percent of the inmates who apply for Pell Grants get them.
Despite the federal contract, the grants and the scholarships, Garrison said, the biggest problem in the educational program is the cutback of funds on a national scale.
"The critical element for society to be concerned about is inmates' education," he said. "About 90 to 94 percent of these inmates will be your neighbors and mine someday."
Paul Forio, program manager for continuing education, sees the University's involvement tied to prison reform.
"It is important to provide educational services to this segment of society." Forio said.
"We are their tools to adapt to the future."
Photos by John Lechliter
LEAVENWORTH — Faced with two life terms and no possibility of parole, Larry W. Giddings spends his days in federal prison pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in sociology.
By Jill White
KU degree program to benefit prisoners
LEAVENWORTH - Five years ago, Kenneth Gregory Rayford, a convicted bank robber, considered himself a social failure. Now he is working toward a bachelor's degree in sociology
Of the Kansan staff
LEAVENWORTH — Kenneth Gregory Hayford considered himself a social failure in 1980, a convuluted bank robber without a reason to return to the society he had failed. He faced a 25-year sentence at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
An anecdote. Because the degree program the KU division of construction education offers at Leavenworth, Bayford and Giddick said last week that they anticipated a productive and fulfilling future.
Larry W. Giddings, another tomate at Leavenworth faced a different problem — what to do with his time. Convicted of bank robbery and first degree assault, he received two life sentences and additional time for an at tempted escape. He never will be eligible for parole.
live and run the nation,
"It has changed my concept of the world," said
An education has changed these men's attitudes.
Rayford, who is eligible for parole in 1987 because his sentence was reduced to 15 years.
"I came from a street-level environment and did everything that someone with a low socio-economical status would do. I dealt with things on a violent level."
In May, Rayford completed his bachelor of arts degree in sociology and psychology. He is working towards a master's degree in sociology. He said the classes gave him a new level of awareness and helped him learn to deal with problems more effectively.
"I've increased my self-confidence and learned how to meet and deal with new people," Rayford said. "I'm offering myself an alternate lifestyle."
"I have a very long sentence and have to find something to do," he said. "Developing some kind of meaningful work is essential to having an effective community. I think education is the only way to do this
Obligations hope to complete his bachelor of arts degree in sociology, then pursue a master's degree. He said it was important for him to develop research skills and pursue academic growth.
"Hopefully, I'll be able to illuminate the conditions under which we are all living and come up with solutions or aids. We need help from the community — an awareness that the program exists and knowledge of what kind of limitations and pressures exist."
Rayford and Gildings said the men in the college programs considered themselves the prison's elite.
"There's a real contrast between the guys taking chapens and the open ones aren't," Gliddings said.
classes and the tales who heard.
Rayford said he expected the transition from Leavannworth to the outside would be difficult because of the digma associated with convicts.
"I know we're in here to be segregated, but it's very crucial for people to remember that a lot of us are going to return to society," he said.
"An an ex-con, I'll have to work doubly hard to get a job. But I think education should help open up some doors."
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