Education not impossible for those serving jail time

Inmates earn GEDs, plan for getting jobs while in county jail

EPHRATA — Shelves of books and rows of desks are adjacent to where inmate Elmer Field is sitting.

On the other side of Field, folded bright orange uniforms line some more shelves.

This is not just any room, but a classroom inside the Grant County Work Release Facility where Field took GED classes. Field earned his GED two months ago and now assists Big Bend Community College basic skills instructor Eva Wright, who teaches the classes to 13 other inmates enrolled in the program twice a week.

"You're helping out instead of being helped," Field said.

The GED program is a requirement for those inmates like Field who participate in the work release facility program and work during the day. The work release facility is considered to be a minimum to medium security facility. Inmates housed in the Grant County Jail under maximum security can also enroll in the GED program, but it is not a requirement.

If an inmate at the work release facility refuses to be in the GED program they are then placed in a maximum security facility, said Lt. Dan Durand who oversees the work release facility.

Sgt. Harold St. Pierre, who was instrumental in making the GED program a requirement, said the decision to do so came about because the work release facility was looking to expand the programs it could offer and saw the potential for inmates to improve their employability once they complete their jail sentences.

For 15 years Wright has taught GED courses at the work release facility and Grant County Jail. She is reluctant to share detailed stories about her students for privacy reasons.

"I am very privileged to be working here," Wright said in a press release statement. "I get to see people turn their lives around as well as get an education."

Duane Wilson, 24, Soap Lake, dropped out of high school because of family obligations. Today, he is two tests away from earning his GED.

Mike Granillo, 20, Ephrata, and Andy Montejano, 34, Othello, are confident the work they have put into completing their GEDs will pay off.

"To be honest, when I was out there I didn't think about going to school and learning," Montejano said. "Now that I'm in here I want to use my time wisely and learn something."

"People always think negatively of you because you are locked up," Granillo said. "At least after I earn my GED I can say I did something positive in here."

"How they spend their time in there has an impact on how much money we may spend on them when they get outside again," Cheek said. "Without an education, they can't get good jobs and without good jobs it's likely they will go back to the lifestyle they had."

BBCC received $11,000 in state grant monies this year to be used specifically for the jail GED program.

Once an instructor herself at a corrections facility in Canada when she was 24, Cheek says it takes a special type of person like Wright to teach the GED program to inmates.

There has to be respect for student privacy and a defined line of boundaries, Cheek said. "Inmates understand that their purpose is to learn and her (Eva's) purpose is to teach."