Teachers chart new course for inmates

By VIVIANE GILBERT STEIN of the East Oregonian

PENDLETON - The women inmates due to arrive soon at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution will be better educated, on average, than their new male neighbors.

It appears that "a lot more of them already have a GED or basic education than men," said Leslie Fryer, one of two adult basic education instructors who will teach the women offenders.

"Their scores are higher, too, even those without GEDs."

In fact, about two-thirds of the women already have a GED - so only one-third will need classes to earn the equivalent of a high school diploma. "And that is definitely lower than the males," said Phillipe Magloire, director of the prison's education department.

Future courses will include more than basic education. Parenting classes, popular among the male inmates, also will be taught.

"It's very valuable and very, very important," Magloire said, especially among the women, about 80 percent of whom are parents. About 60 percent of those parent inmates will be sole providers for their children after prison.

"We're not born, necessarily, with parenting skills," he pointed out. "People's parenting skills very often are how our parents treated us, and some people have not had very good parents."

But there's hope: "You can learn parenting skills," he said.

"If someone leaves here having good parenting skills, the cycle (of foster care) basically stops."

Parenting courses will be offered, hopefully sometime this winter, first to women nearing the end of their prison sentences. "Being a good parent is perhaps even more important than getting a job," Magloire said.

Vocational skills as well may be taught in the future, Magloire said. For now, space is an issue in the cramped H Unit. Magloire also hopes to have the women inmates participate in the Books on Tape program.

"I would really enjoy having some female voices on our Books on Tape," he said.

But again, space in which to work is an issue that needs to be resolved first.

There also is some concern about the logistics of teaching in a unit where every space is used for several tasks over the course of a day. Bad acoustics and crowded rooms may be distracting, worried Roberta Lewis, a GED and basic skills instructor who will join Fryer in teaching the women.

"We're just going to have to figure that out as we go," Fryer said. "Sometimes you have to forge ahead and just do it, work the bugs out as you go."

"And we're good at that," Lewis added with a smile.

The pair brings a collective 20 years of teaching experience to the task - Fryer, 8 years, and Lewis, 12 - but this will be their first experience with women inmates.

"It's hard to imagine what to expect," Lewis said.

But both volunteered to teach a class to the women in H Unit, who will begin arriving this week.

It will be "something different," Fryer said, who signed up for the post "just for a little variety."

In fact, the worst part of the job will be its location, deep inside the institution.

"I'm not looking forward to walking across the compound every day all winter," Fryer grumped good-naturedly.

Classes won't start until next term, which allows the staff a precious few weeks to complete plans. Two classes are planned, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, for 10 to 15 students each. A range of abilities are expected, so "at first, we'll have a more general class. Down the road, we might specialize more," Fryer said.

Inmates enroll voluntarily in the basic education courses.

"So generally, the students we do get are pretty good students because they really want to improve their skills - there's not somebody making them," Fryer explained. "That makes it easier."

Overall, Magloire - who has previous experience working with female inmates in New York and at other Oregon institutions - is looking forward to the new students.

"It's going to be a new challenge," Magloire said. But, he added, "I'm really looking forward to this. I think it's going to be interesting."