Spring Break
College behind bars
Issue date: 2/12/07 Section: Other Campuses
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(MCT) - In some ways, Randy Gutierrez is like a lot of other 19-year-olds. The former varsity athlete is struggling through his first college history course with hopes of earning a degree.
The difference is that Gutierrez is behind bars at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution near Plymouth, Wis., for sexual assault. He's one of about 150 young inmates in more than a dozen prisons around the country who are taking classes and could even earn degrees from Milwaukee Area Technical College - virtually for free - through a new federally funded program.
"Now I feel like, obviously, I've got some time to learn and better myself when I get out," said Gutierrez, who will be eligible for release in 2009.
The MATC program, called College of the Air, works much like an online class or a correspondence course. MATC sends instructional videos to prisons in Wisconsin, Maine, Tennessee, Texas, Alaska, Minnesota and New Jersey through a satellite feed.
At the prisons, inmates watch one hour-long video each week for 14 weeks. An MATC instructor sends assignments such as textbook reading, written papers and tests from Milwaukee. Students send their work back. The instructor gives written feedback by mail.
Meanwhile, a staffer at the prison monitors inmates' attendance, sends their questions to the MATC instructor and proctors their tests. Students pay $10 a course.
After they complete credits, students receive an MATC transcript that looks like they went to school in Milwaukee. Students who take enough credits can get associate of arts degrees from MATC from behind bars. That degree would then enable them to transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee once they are released.
MATC English instructor Mark Connelly has never had face-to-face contact with his students at Kettle Moraine, but he knows their stories.
Each week he opens his e-mail inbox to find well-written essays about turned-around lives and dreams for the future. "I'm very impressed with the commitment of the students," Connelly said. "The depth and rigor of the writing in general is very, very good."
The difference is that Gutierrez is behind bars at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution near Plymouth, Wis., for sexual assault. He's one of about 150 young inmates in more than a dozen prisons around the country who are taking classes and could even earn degrees from Milwaukee Area Technical College - virtually for free - through a new federally funded program.
"Now I feel like, obviously, I've got some time to learn and better myself when I get out," said Gutierrez, who will be eligible for release in 2009.
The MATC program, called College of the Air, works much like an online class or a correspondence course. MATC sends instructional videos to prisons in Wisconsin, Maine, Tennessee, Texas, Alaska, Minnesota and New Jersey through a satellite feed.
At the prisons, inmates watch one hour-long video each week for 14 weeks. An MATC instructor sends assignments such as textbook reading, written papers and tests from Milwaukee. Students send their work back. The instructor gives written feedback by mail.
Meanwhile, a staffer at the prison monitors inmates' attendance, sends their questions to the MATC instructor and proctors their tests. Students pay $10 a course.
After they complete credits, students receive an MATC transcript that looks like they went to school in Milwaukee. Students who take enough credits can get associate of arts degrees from MATC from behind bars. That degree would then enable them to transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee once they are released.
MATC English instructor Mark Connelly has never had face-to-face contact with his students at Kettle Moraine, but he knows their stories.
Each week he opens his e-mail inbox to find well-written essays about turned-around lives and dreams for the future. "I'm very impressed with the commitment of the students," Connelly said. "The depth and rigor of the writing in general is very, very good."
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