{"id":49850,"date":"2019-08-26T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T18:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=49850"},"modified":"2024-11-08T14:05:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T19:05:23","slug":"second-chances-lockhart-inmates-graduate-from-community-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/08\/26\/second-chances-lockhart-inmates-graduate-from-community-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Second chances: Lockhart inmates graduate from community college"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin American-Statesman:\u00a0Second chances: Lockhart inmates graduate from community college<\/a><\/p>\n

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By Lara Korte lkorte@statesman.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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LOCKHART \u2014 Tears and cheers filled the gymnasium Saturday at the Lockhart Correctional Facility as more than 100 family members, friends and officers celebrated the graduation of 14 women from Austin Community College\u2019s certified production technician program.<\/p>\n

For the women \u2014 13 inmates and one who recently was released \u2014 and their families, the day was not just a recognition of the hundreds of hours they put into learning a trade, but a celebration of second chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are labeled,\u201d said Misty Campbell, one of the graduates. \u201cThere\u2019s a stigma. We\u2019re felons. So this is an opportunity that gives us a chance to go out there and know that there\u2019s a job waiting for us, and a job that\u2019s going to pay us well, no matter that stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class was the first of its kind to use money from Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, a nonprofit that helps direct state and federal training dollars, to educate offenders in Texas.<\/p>\n

The organization will connect the women with employers offering front-line manufacturing technician jobs.<\/p>\n

For Donald Tracy, ACC director of corporate and community education, it\u2019s an experiment that\u2019s going to pay off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we come together as a team around these ladies … and we support them and we provide them with some vocational training, provide them with some life skills training, it will make a huge difference in the recidivism rate here in Texas,\u201d Tracy said.<\/p>\n

The graduates, most set to be released in the coming months, gathered under balloons and streamers in the facility\u2019s gymnasium prior to the ceremony, laughing and embracing one another as they looked forward to the next chapter of their lives.<\/p>\n

For one inmate, Mary Henry, that next chapter starts this week. On Wednesday, she\u2019ll be released from prison and by Friday, will be home with her family in Tyler.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I leave here, I\u2019m not the person that\u2019s a felon, I\u2019m the person that just got there today,\u201d Henry said. \u201cHow you doing, I\u2019m Mary Henry, and I would like you to meet the person that I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since April, the women have met every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a four-hour class with their ACC instructor, Rosalba Schramm. It was hard work, the women said, with one describing Schramm as a \u201ctough cookie.\u201d In addition to classes and studying, many of the women hold jobs at the prison, requiring them to get up as early as 4 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it didn\u2019t matter,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cWe had the drive to do it, and we wanted it badly. It was an amazing opportunity, something that doesn\u2019t happen where we sit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition found this year that female incarceration in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice increased 908% from 1980 to 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have this at Lockhart makes my heart sing a little bit,\u201d said Lauren Johnson, ACLU of Texas criminal justice outreach coordinator. \u201cBecause the women are often left out of these conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lockhart\u2019s senior warden, Jennifer Brown, said her focus is providing the inmates with a nurturing environment where they feel like people, not prisoners. A big aspect of that is preparing them for release.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that we provide them the vocation and education substance to make sure that they are prepared for the outside world,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo they can compete with others who don\u2019t have a felony.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the graduation speeches and performances from the prison choir and drill team, the 14 women walked across the stage and received their certificates. For Campbell and her classmates, it\u2019s not just about having a job, but also a sense of self.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s helped everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cNot just the certificate that\u2019s going to work out there, but it\u2019s the self-esteem; to know that \u2018hey, I am OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austin American-Statesman:\u00a0Second chances: Lockhart inmates graduate from community college By Lara Korte lkorte@statesman.com LOCKHART \u2014 Tears and cheers filled the gymnasium Saturday at the Lockhart Correctional Facility as more than 100 family members, friends and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,13,15],"tags":[3120,2300,223,2685,2545],"class_list":["post-49850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","category-business-and-community","category-current-students","category-facstaff-news","tag-austin-american-statesman-2","tag-certified-production-technician","tag-continuing-education","tag-lockhart","tag-lockhart-correctional-facility"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}