Achieving Success Behind Barbed Wire: Schooling Gives Inmates A Chance To Start Fresh

On the wall of Fred Zenz’ science classroom is a mock bumper sticker that reads:

“My child is an HONOR STUDENT at the State Correctional Facility.”

“The kids love it,” said Zenz, a science teacher at Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution. “They ask if they can send it home.”

Of course, parents are not likely to display such a bumper sticker on their cars, but it does reflect an underlying truth: Students who succeed in prison school sometimes feel as much – or more – pride in their academic accomplishments as students in traditional schools.

And teachers at correctional facilities will tell you they do too.

“A lot of these guys reached the frustration level in education years ago. They’ve been defeated in school, and we have to build up their self-esteem until they can achieve some successes,” said Zenz, who is president of the 12-member teachers’ union at the facility.

“Any time someone passes a test or says they learned something today, it’s a big reward.”

While the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution doesn’t really have “honor students,” it has many students who succeed academically, which usually means they earn their High School Equivalency Degree. That is the primary goal at Prairie du Chien, which houses just over 300 inmates ages 16 to 22.

Teaching in such a facility presents many unique challenges:

Fred Zenz

• Nearly all students come in behind academically. On average, they arrive with a 4th- or 5th-grade reading level. In order to get them in a position to attain their HSED, they first have to raise their reading level. “I’m a science and health teacher, but I really teach reading,” Zenz said. Parental support is typically not a factor. Because of the nature of the inmate population, every teacher is required to receive special education certification (at his or her own expense). “Everyone needs individualized attention,” Zenz said.
• Students come and go quickly, meaning the teachers have to work fast to bring them up to speed. The average stay at PDCCI is 1 to 1½ years. Every week, eight to 10 inmates leave the institution and are replaced by eight to 10 new inmates. About two-thirds of the inmates attend classes. New students must pick up wherever the rest of the class is. If the class is on page 200 of the textbook, that is where the new student begins. When the textbook is completed, Zenz starts over at the beginning of the book. Hopefully, a student stays long enough to cover the entire curriculum, which prepares him or her for the HSED test.
• Security issues often interfere with the learning process. There is little opportunity for hands-on learning or field trips. Pencils and rulers are carefully guarded and locked up when not in use. Science projects are virtually non-existent – no weather stations, physics demonstrations or grow lights for plants. “We really rely on videos to get concepts across,” Zenz said. To avoid “fraternization,” teachers are not allowed to give individual students anything of value, including a newspaper or book that is not made available to all students. Despite the nature of the student body, Zenz said there are very few discipline problems, largely because of the severe consequences disruptive students face in a prison setting.
• The pay is low. Salaries are 11% behind the average K-12 teacher compensation level, and 33% behind state technical college teacher pay. WEAC Council #1, which represents teachers at state institutions, has been working to correct those pay disparities.

Mike Moore, executive director of the State Professional Education and Information Council (also known as Council #1), said the state would receive a big payback by improving teacher pay and working conditions in its institutions, because that would ultimately make the educational program more successful.

“Study after study show that the more education inmates complete during their incarceration, the more likely they are to find jobs and become valued and productive members of society,” Moore said. “This leads to tremendous cost savings for Wisconsin taxpayers.”

A 1993 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons found that inmates who successfully completed one or more educational programs for each six months confined had only a 35.5% recidivism rate vs. a 44.1% recidivism rate for those who had not completed any courses.

Figures like that motivate prison teachers such as Zenz, who put up with low pay and a challenging work environment in hopes of turning young lives around.

“We all take a lot of pride in what we do,” he said.

Posted August 24, 1999