Tutoring Inmates At a Prison

O nce a week, I walk through a metal detector, through multiple electronic gates, across a prison yard, and into a surprisingly hospitable looking school to tutor inmates to help them achieve passing grades on their GED (general equivalency diploma) tests.  Several other students and I, with the supervision of a professor, tutor in a maximum security prison.

   We know our work is important due to the statistical evidence in favor of the attainment of higher education by prisoners, and by our subjective observations of the prisoners as they learn with us.  There is an indirect relationship between higher education received in prison and the rate of re-incarceration among released prisoners.  Individual prisoners become eligible for legitimate employment in the outside world, and society becomes safer, as ex-cons are less compelled to commit crimes. 

   The experience in the classroom with the inmates is rewarding.  They are grown men, some just barely, others in their 50s, and all ages in between, and their learning styles and needs all differ.  I usually tutor mathematics, helping with linear equations among other things.  From my judgment, it is satisfying to the men when they grasp the material, and at that moment, I am quite satisfied as well.