A Different Kind of Degree in Metro Atlanta

Barron’s attempts at solemnity kept turning into a smile. He and eight others, in jail awaiting trial, celebrated a graduation of sorts this week: Each had earned a GED, the equivalent of a high school diploma, while incarcerated.

Officials hope the program, like those offered at other area prisons, will better prepare inmates to find work and stay out of trouble once released, especially when paired with other educational programs offered , such as certifications in welding or construction. professions.

“You are a product of circumstance,” Sheriff Craig Owens told the graduates. “but you are also the product of your decisions. And choosing to get your GED was one of the best decisions.

Barron never finished high school. His educational efforts were interrupted by his criminal efforts. By 10th grade, the Lawrenceville resident was behind bars, part of a series of incarcerations that he says began around age 13.

He is currently in jail awaiting prosecution on seven counts, mostly felonies, charges which, if convicted, could keep him in custody for years. Yet he smiled.

“It’s something I really wanted to do,” he said of getting the GED, which involved group classes at the detention center and studying before taking and passing math tests , science, social studies and English.

“It’s going to help me when I get out,” he said.

No family members of the graduates attended the ceremony Tuesday. But Barron said he called his father earlier to tell him the news.

“My father was happy that I was trying to change my habits.”

Barron said he would like to earn two college degrees, one in business and another in project management, to help him start his own business. “I want to prove everyone wrong.”

Just over half of adult inmates serving sentences in Georgia state prisons never earned a high school diploma or GED, at least among those who reported their educational attainment, according to a report released last year by the state Department of Corrections. At the Cobb Detention Center, which houses more than 2,000 inmates, schooling is not available for many inmates. Among those who benefit, at least three-quarters have completed their secondary education. Yet more than 300 did not.

Former prisoners who committed crimes may struggle to land a job, and it only gets more difficult without at least the equivalent of a high school diploma.

Credit: NATRICE MILLER

Credit: NATRICE MILLER

Rachel Pilgrim, 38, has already served four years in prison. Most of the time, she sat and played cards, she said. She is now incarcerated at the Cobb Jail and faces new charges. But this time, she was encouraged to participate in the voluntary GED program and rushed to do it.

“I did nothing but harm and ended up in the same place,” she said. “Maybe now, doing something good, I won’t come back.”

She hopes it could help her keep her job when she gets out. “I always had to lie on applications, like, ‘Yes, I got a GED,’ and wait for it to backfire on me. But now I don’t need to do that anymore.

A total of 13 inmates have received a GED since the Cobb Institution GED training center opened in March. Currently, 23 others are graduating.

Some of Tuesday’s graduates participated in the program to escape monotonous days and the general prison population or use “down time” to improve. One inmate saw it as a step toward eventually earning a community college diploma or a tractor-trailer driving license.

Another recounted how happy his older daughter, now in college, was to learn that her father had gotten his GED.

Another, Samuel Santos, said that by dropping out of 10th grade, he did not realize the important benefits he was giving up along with a high school diploma. That prevented him from obtaining real estate and construction licenses, he said. That would have allowed him to start a business buying, rehabbing and selling homes, he said.

Now, he also hopes a GED will eventually help him provide for his 16-month-old daughter. And maybe one day she’ll be inspired by the idea that her father aimed for more, which might push her to expect more for herself.

Santos recently told his own father that he had earned a GED. “He told me, ‘OK. This is your first step. Now you still have a lot to do.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I still have a ways to go. This is not my last stop.