The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Posted on Mon, May. 22, 2006

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Foundation helps return higher ed to prisons

RUBÉN ROSARIO

Face and eyes locked in thought, Elijah Thomas Combs strikes a contemplative pose in response to a question.

"A lot of the people on the outside might have an ill perspective of us,'' the 24-year-old Minneapolis native says as he leans against the guard desk inside Cell Hall A-West at the state prison in Stillwater.

"We're all in here, and 99 percent of us are guilty,'' says Combs, who has 10 more years to go before he is eligible for release for aiding and abetting a 1999 murder in Shakopee. "A lot may say they are not guilty, but a lot of us recognize that we are and want to change. We don't want to live the same lives that got us here. And education is one of the main ways I believe you can do that."

Say hello to Combs, Inmate No. 215445 and one of the new Joe Colleges behind bars. Combs, who obtained his GED high school diploma in lockup, is now one of about 100 inmates enrolled in post-secondary education courses at Stillwater and two other prison facilities in St. Cloud and Shakopee.

Politics, public backlash, swelling inmate populations, rising costs for basic upkeep and steep budget cuts wiped out government funding for higher-ed prison courses throughout prisons in Minnesota and most other states in recent years.

But they're back now after a nearly three-year absence. Classes began in March and there's a waiting list of more than 100 inmates. This time, however, the offering is not costing taxpayers or the government one red cent, thanks to the little-known Minnesota Correctional Education Foundation.

The St. Paul-based foundation, established two years ago, was the brainchild of like-minded educators, prison officials and others who felt strongly about the benefits of bringing back such courses to eligible inmates.

Since December, it has managed to raise $85,000 in donations. Contributors range from corrections officers to deep-pocketed philanthropists. It has also aligned itself with an educational consortium of higher-education entities such as Augsburg College, Inver Hills Community College and St. Cloud State University. The institutions are providing instructors, mostly through contracts and in-kind donations. The courses can lead to an associate of arts degree.

Although the adult reoffense rate is more than 60 percent nationally, most studies have found that recidivism rates drop significantly the more education an inmate achieves while in prison. Those who took post-secondary education record the lowest reoffense rates.

One study in the late 1990s in Alabama found that only 1 percent of inmates who completed college degrees while incarcerated returned to prison, compared to a 35 percent reoffense rate that year in Alabama's general population. Minnesota was included in a three-state study in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Education that reported similar findings. The report concluded that society saves more than $2 for every dollar spent on prison education programs.

"I truly believe in this effort because I know it will lead to much safer and healthier communities when they return,'' says Liz Evensen, the foundation's executive director, lone staffer and chief fundraiser. "I am so proud of being a part of this, because I see the value and I also see the big picture in this.''

Evensen has the kind of can-do personality needed for a fundraising job that one Stillwater inmate said is about as tough as "selling ice cubes in Alaska.''

Evensen acknowledges the challenge. She knows there's intense competition for donations, and that the immediate beneficiaries are not cuddly kids or animals.

"You get a range of reactions, from those who express some understanding to others who are very direct and tell me that I won't get one penny from them and not to ever contact them again,'' she says.

A major and notable contributor is Bruce Johnson, the St. Paul native and inventor who came up with the enormously successful Breathe Right nasal strips.

"I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is,'' says Johnson. "I believe in this, that post-secondary is a void that needs to be filled and that this is a good way to reinvest in our community.''

Two other inmates taking the college courses at Stillwater are Elizer Darris, 22, of St. Louis and Quentin Starin, 24, of Little Falls, Minn.

Darris, who joined a traveling carnival at age 14 and was functionally illiterate, has another 10 years at least to serve for the 1999 murder of a carnival colleague in Polk County, Minn. He was 15 at the time of the slaying. He has since obtained his GED and said a turning point in his life came a few years ago when he watched a documentary about the Holocaust as part of a now-defunct post-secondary course while at the St. Cloud prison.

"It just opened my eyes,'' he says. "I had no idea. I felt compassion for somebody else, something I had never felt before."

Starin, serving a 12-year term for possession of methamphetamine, actually had his family bankroll college correspondence courses through Louisiana State University after higher-ed courses at Stillwater were wiped out two years ago.

He recently completed work for a degree and was accepted to the state prison system's Challenge Incarceration Program in outstate Minnesota for nonviolent offenders.

Tim Eling, 57, stood a few feet behind Combs as he spoke last week. The convicted cop killer and lifer will leave Stillwater in a pine box. A gang member who smuggled drugs into prison, Eling was perhaps among the most troublesome of prisoners until the light bulb went on 10 years ago.

He is a holder of a community college degree, a tutor to other inmates and the editor of the Prison Mirror, the award-winning prison newspaper. He says he has seen the faces of "thousands'' of inmates walk out of prison, only to return.

"The hope is that they don't end up like me,'' Eling says as he nods toward Combs and Starin nearby. "This is what I hear: 'I'm going to make it. Everything is going to be great. It's all good.'

"Unfortunately, most of them don't learn anything while they are here,'' Eling continues. "They got no education. So what are they going to do when they get out? The same thing they were doing when they left. If you don't learn something while you are here, you are still the same person when you get out. So what's going to change? Nothing is going to change."

Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.

Online

Learn more about the Minnesota Correctional Education Foundation at www.mcef.info.

Stillwater prison inmate Aldridge Smith, left, is tutored during a spelling and phonics lesson by fellow inmate John Sims, 53, in a Literacy 1 class. Smith, 23, is serving an eight-year sentence for accessory to murder, while Sims is serving 13 years for attempted second-degree murder. The class, which meets daily for three hours, is funded by the Minnesota Correctional Education Foundation.

© 2006 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.