JACKSON — Mississippi’s corrections commissioner says, “I want to put inmates back to work.”
A visit to the Louisiana State Penitentiary showed him that when inmates sentenced to life in prison teach job skills to inmates with shorter sentences, everyone benefits, Commissioner Marshall Fisher told The Clarion-Ledger.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections has forbidden work details for inmates serving life sentences since one escaped from a job two years ago. Mississippi’s 18,000 inmates include more than 2,000 serving life.
Louisiana’s program lets some nonviolent offenders with shorter sentences earn their GEDs and learn trades. Many of their teachers are inmates serving life.
Officials say half of all Louisiana inmates return to prison within five years after release, but only one-tenth of the 360 who have finished the program have done so.
Fisher said his department has begun changing policies with an eye toward work for inmates serving life.
“They’ve got the recipe,” he said. “I’m not above copying, if it works.”
The July visit impressed Fisher, who snapped photographs while watching inmates serving life sentences teach other inmates how to fix cars. Other occupations taught in the prison at Angola include horticulture, culinary arts and welding.
Fisher said inmates and staff treated each other with respect, and the prison felt so safe that he wandered the halls with staffers until 9 p.m.
He returned to Mississippi feeling inspired.
He said the classes create purpose for the inmate teachers as well as students.
The longtime law enforcement officer who spent most of his career locking people up is now seeking reforms so that what happens behind bars can help ensure they never return.
“You give them a life skill, and they can become taxpayers, instead of returning to prison and becoming tax burdens,” he said. “It’s not going to work in every case, but it’s certainly worth the effort.”
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