Like a lot of other Ohio University students, Sue Kennon wasn't sure what she wanted to major in when she was starting out, and she suffered through Philosophy 120, her most challenging class. And like many others, she graduated from OU with a bachelor's degree in psychology. The difference? She did it from inside the brick walls of the Virginia Correctional Center for Women.
Since 1974 the OU College Program for the Incarcerated has allowed prisoners like Kennon from all over the country to take correspondence classes from prison. These students can take classes from 50 different subject areas that range from accounting to women's studies. Each student is assigned to an adviser whom they communicate with through mail. The program doesn't ask the students of what crimes they have been convicted, but Ken Armstrong, director of the OU Independent and Distance Learning Program, said it ranges all across the board.
Sue's story
Kennon enrolled in 1990 while incarcerated for armed robbery. After the tragic death of her husband when she was 29 years old and seven months pregnant, she turned to drugs, eventually becoming addicted to heroin, Kennon said. To fund her habit, she robbed several stores with a silver plastic toy gun. It finally caught up with Kennon the night a pharmacist surprised her with a real gun of his own.
She spent 12 years in prison, during which she took CPI's slogan, Doing time doesn't have to mean wasting time
to heart. She became the first woman in Virginia to earn a bachelor's degree while incarcerated when she graduated from OU in 1993, and she tutored other inmates. Kennon began working on her doctorate while in prison and finished it after her release.
What I did basically and honestly is substitute one addiction for another
only this time it was a good one
Kennon said.
After her release, she returned to the Virginia Correctional Center for Women, but this time as an employee. Kennon now counsels inmates on how to help their children deal with their incarceration through programs called MOMS INC. and DADS INC., which she devised while incarcerated.
Making the grade
Education has proved to reduce the risk of an inmate returning to prison after release, said Jerry McGlone, director of education in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
For every dollar spent on education
it saves taxpayers $2
McGlone said.
But not all inmates are so drawn to nor successful in these programs.
Academic success isn't exactly thought of in a prison environment as something to be admired
said Jane Penwell, who taught in prisons for eight years before becoming an educational adviser in the OU Independent and Distance Learning Program.
Only 61 of the 3,454 inmates who have taken classes from CPI in the past five years have earned degrees from the program.
Some inmates transfer their credits to other universities after they are released because most are in prison for only a few years, Armstrong said.
Post-graduation plans
Most of the CPI students who chose to continue their education don't decide to attend OU, either because they want to attend somewhere closer to home or because they want to start over with their lives, Penwell said.
They want a fresh start
Penwell said. Who could blame them?
Those who do want to attend OU on campus after their release must apply to the OU Office of Legal Affairs for permission. Several students have done so in the past, Penwell said, and there were no problems.
While in prison, inmates are responsible for their own tuition, which is $136 per hour, the same as normal tuition for OU correspondence classes. Tuition is usually paid by the students' families, Armstrong said.
Alden Waitt, another educational adviser, said she had one student go on to earn an MBA after being released, and another student won a national literary award while still incarcerated.
Many CPI students who earn degrees want to start their own businesses after their release because they know employment will be difficult for them, Penwell said. Others want to work in social services.
A lot of times they want to counsel youth who they feel are going down the same path they did
Penwell said.
