Barton Community College student Desmund Cantu spoke to college trustees this week, joining the meeting from Ellsworth Correctional Facility thanks to video conference software.
Cantu, 23, quit school after his junior year, and was convicted of burglary, assault and battery in Reno County in 2013. According to the Kansas Department of Corrections, he is working at a job in the correctional facility and still has at least two more years before he will be released.
By that time, Cantu will have a Kansas High School Diploma and marketable skills such as welding, thanks to programs offered by Barton at the correctional facility
Cantu praised the Barton instructors for helping inmates further themselves. “I can tell they really care by the way they interact with us,” he said.
Next Tuesday, Barton staff will travel to the correctional facility for a Celebration of Learning, recognizing Cantu and other students who have completed educational programs, including vocational certificates. Approximately 500 people are expected to attend.
Canatu’s attendance at the BCC Board of Trustees meeting was part of the annual staff report on how well the college is meeting goals in the area of teaching essential skills.
Other presenters were Chris Lemon, Barton’s coordinator of the Adult Education program, and Kathryn Jackson, AO-K instructional specialist at Ellsworth Correctional Facility.
At the prison and at the Great Bend Adult Education office, Barton offers access to instruction that leads individuals to prepare and potentially earn their Kansas State High School diploma. Students working toward this outcome take the General Educational Development (GED) test.
Accelerating Opportunity: Kansas (AO-K) delivers career and technical education simultaneously with adult basic skills instruction. Students complete short term certificate programs, aligned with labor market needs, leading to industry endorsed credentials and immediate jobs.
Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman said the college received a grant to make AO-K available, and decided to offer it in corrections programs. That decision could strengthen the college’s reputation with the Kansas Department of Corrections.
“We’ll see opportunities to take this concept to other correctional facilities in the state,” Heilman said.
Jackson said these programs help fulfill the mission of Kansas prisons, which are actually correctional facilities.
“We believe that completing their high school diploma is important,” Lemon said, noting 55 percent of Kansas inmates don’t have a high school diploma.
Trustees also praised the mission. Chairman Mike Johnson said education “breaks the cycle” of inmates committing future crimes and returning to prison.
Trustee Gary Burke said he hired a former inmate who went on to become a supervisor.
“To those who would say we are wasting dollars (by educating inmates), they need to see how we’re changing lives,” Burke said.
