Graduation

Back in 1974, when I was a service engineer for 3M, there were copiers that I maintained belonging to the Wyndham School District.  Since they don’t have a football team, you may not recognize the name, that is the educational system within the Texas prisons.

1974 was also the year that Fred Gomez Carrasco, a convicted drug kingpin from San Antonio, along with fellow prisoners Rudy S. Dominguez, and Ignacio Cuevas attempted to break out of the Walls prison in Huntsville, taking several hostages in the prison library.  A model 209 copier I serviced can actually be seen in film of the shoot-out that brought the escape attempt to an end.  The incident lasted more than a week, ending with the death of two female hostages, the wounding of other hostages, and the death of inmate gunmen Carrasco and Dominguez.

Marilyn Jones was the dispatcher at 3M, a beautiful and intelligent woman who was probably the best dispatcher I ever met.  Sometime during the eight-day siege at Huntsville, I completed a call in Livingston, Texas and called Marilyn for my next assignment.

She said “You need to go to Wyndham…”

Before she could finish, I replied “And you can go to Hell.”

As it turned out, she was trying to send me to Wyndham Lumber Mill in Livingston, a place I didn’t even know existed. 

An unhappy dispatcher can make your life miserable.  It took numerous apologies, a bouquet of flowers and about a month before we were back to normal.

The story below has little or nothing to do with the story above, but when I saw it on the Cleveland Advocate’s website, it made me think of Wyndham, 3M and Marilyn.  At least this one has a happier ending.

FYI- I edited out several paragraphs from the original:

 

Hallowed halls behind prison walls

Posted: Sunday, December 12, 2010 11:56 pm

By STEPHEN THOMAS |

It’s a traditional ceremony. “Pomp and Circumstance” plays. Graduates wearing caps and gowns walk single-file down the aisle between columns of friends and family members, who rise from their folding chairs and shower their loved ones with applause and shouts of encouragement.

This was how a graduation ceremony began on Friday, Dec. 3, in Cleveland. This, however, was not a run-of-the-mill graduation. For underneath the gowns, these graduates wore navy blue prison uniforms. Fifty-five inmates at Cleveland Correctional Center graduated from the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a five-month intellectual and introspective boot camp that has an astounding track record for transforming character.

The selective program, held at a minimum-security facility for adult male offenders, has taught business skills and social skills to more than 600 inmates during its six years. Throughout Texas, 60 percent to 70 percent of convicts wind up back behind bars within a year of their release, but roughly 10 percent of the program’s graduates backslide, said Randy Doleman, the program’s manager of prison initiatives.

“The state has realized that what we’re doing, although it may be unorthodox, is working,” Doleman said, adding that executives and MBA students “mentor” the graduates upon their release.

Each graduate’s release date is within three years, each has a GED or a high school diploma, none is incarcerated for a sex offense, none has a recent disciplinary history.

“Maybe for the first time, they will have completed something,” Doleman said. “Not only have they changed, but they have proof of that.  Hopefully, when they’ve finished, you’ll see a changed man, who lives with integrity and nobility.”

Trainers initially determine each participant’s ability. Afterward, each chooses his own line of business, such as welding, designing T-shirts or operating a restaurant. Everyone studies basic entrepreneurship, develops a business plan and learns how to pitch his plan, the latter of which builds communication skills. Along the way, each student learns how to handle a job interview, acquire financing, invest in stock, and use social media and other computerized marketing vehicles.

Of the 110 selectees, the 55 December graduates refused to quit the intensive training and adhered to its behavioral expectations.

Acknowledged for scoring the highest grade point average, Valedictorian Clayton Griseta told the audience how he once had a low opinion of himself.

“Over and over, I heard, ‘You can’t do this,’” Griseta said. “I felt like a disappointment. I felt lost. I joined expecting a business program … I can honestly say I learned more in five months than I learned in high school, not just about business but about myself as well.”