Excerpt from The Herald Dispatch, published December 13, 2024
by Kris Bertelsen
Most people don’t think of correctional facilities as education strongholds to foster learning and second chances, but National Education Month is a perfect time to reframe that thinking and highlight the innovation taking place in prison education and the change it can drive. I’ve run Huntington Junior College’s education program at a maximum-security prison for two years. I work with some incarcerated individuals serving short sentences and others serving much longer sentences, including “lifers.” The program we offer — with college-level classes in entrepreneurship, business management, and civics — is voluntary, and when I work with the students who enroll, I don’t see many who have permanent chips on their shoulders.
Instead I see students, people, who have taken a wrong turn in life — some very wrong — looking for a second chance. Most of the students in our program are enthusiastic learners who want to do their very best. Providing them with a connection to education, a shot at opportunity, is both the right and smart thing to do.