Education helps inmates take the high road

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — In 72 days Anthony Griego's life will change dramatically. He will return home to help his mother in Los Lunas. His father died in April and he was not able to attend the funeral.

Griego will also return to work in the iron industry and he will see his 9-year-old son and his son's mother for the first time in quite a while.

Griego, you see, is a 39-year-old man serving the final 72 days of a 20-month prison sentence on drug-related charges at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants.

Rather than being cynical and bitter, he has a refreshing outlook on life and his future.

"I have learned a lot being here," he said. "I will never take my freedom for granted again I do not want to come back here," he said.

He said he is going to stay away from the so-called "friends," that he was involved with that developed into a situation where he was arrested, convicted and sent to prison.

"I am going to be a productive member of society," he said, echoing what prison Warden George Tapia said during a graduation ceremony for 35 inmates at Western Friday afternoon.

A "first step"
Tapia told the 35 men, some dressed in graduation robes and hats, some in normal prison garb, that getting a GED or a certificate from one of several vocational programs was the first step and should not be considered "the" step for themselves while they serve the remainder of their time.

"Make this the first step in being successful. By graduating today you are showing that you are trying to forget the past and looking forward into the future," Tapia said.

"I am going to take the tools they have given me here, the skills and knowledge that I have gained, to be successful, go back to work and to be there for my mother and my son," Griego said.

"You will have choices when you get out of here. Use this as a stepping stone to being successful. Use the tools you have been given by the teachers, officers and staff to be successful and not return here," Tapia said.

A changed man
Tony Chavez, 26, also is a changed man since being sent to prison five years ago.

After the graduation ceremony, he was sitting with his 4-year-old daughter, Monique, who was born during his first year in prison, and they were quietly talking and laughing.

His father, Richard Chavez, said he and his wife Terri, have taken Monique to visit Tony in prison each month so he and his daughter could know one another.

"Chavez has one month to go before he is released and said he plans to go to college.

"I have a grant to go to college and I intend to go to Northern New Mexico," he said. Chavez said he has not decided what he wants to do, that he has to make a choice of careers that will be good for him and not have his felony conviction be a problem.

Prison education system helps inmates
Kathy Elkins, Success for Offenders After Release, coordinator and cognitive programs instructor said the education system in the prison system helps inmates in several ways.

There is an active GED program as well as several vocational programs including some that train inmates for computer software and hardware repair.

The educational programs offered by the prison give inmates a better chance at not returning after they are released from custody, Elkins said.

Statewide, the recidivism rate for inmates released is significant for those who have gone through the educational system . Seventy-Six percent of inmates who do not take advantage of and graduate from these programs return to prison for one reason or another, she said.

When they have gone through the educational process, that rate has been reduced to 29 percent, she said.

"So we help reduce the return of inmates from three-quarters of those released to one-third," he said.

"And those statistics have been tracked, confirmed and are good since 2000," she said.

Eventually, through Eastern New Mexico University, inmates will be able to work toward and receive two-year associates degrees, even four year bachelor degrees, Elkins said.