The Visit

Last Monday our “Campus within Walls” hosted the Chief Deputy of the Virginia Secretary of Education.  We’d expected the Secretary to be here.  “She had a commitment arise from the budget conference” we were told.  And our initial reaction was one of disappointment.  We thought it was just another example of our program, and in particular the work the instructors and aides do, just getting lip service from Richmond.  Especially for the aides, this is a thankless job.  We’re paid 45 cents per hour and many of us are devoting 60, 70 and sometimes 80 hours each week helping guys with their assignments.  Yet, we are only allowed credit for 50 hours each week.  Nothing we do gets us closer to release.  Virginia doesn’t provide extraordinary good time, even when you’re helping make possible the Governor’s vision for successful re-entry.

So, our initial reaction to the visit was muted.  We were, we thought, the “red-headed” step child again.  But then the Deputy Director engaged us and, to our pleasant surprise, things were better than we’d hoped.

The Deputy Director was a school principal before becoming the second in command at the Department of Education.  He spoke at length with the aides as he sat in our Excel class.  He talked candidly with our instructor.  He asked well reasoned questions and was genuinely impressed by the efforts of the men and the instructors.  “I’ve never been inside a prison before”, he told us on the way over to tour our building.  “I never imagined it would be like this.”

The building tour:  the warden, the assistant warden, the president of the Community College and our principal led our Richmond VIPs over to our “dorm”.  Our IT instructor, Ms. T – the most dedicated faculty member I know to this program – asked me to escort her over to see the building.  “I’ve always wondered how you guys do it, the conditions you live under”, she told me as we walked over.  Then she slowed and asked, “Will it make me cry?”  I laughed.  “No more than it makes me cry every day.”  And they all came in and saw the 96 bunks and gray paint and Ms. T leaned over to me and said, “I’ll never forget that first view when I walked in.”

And there were pictures.  All of us photographed by the Education Department’s photographer with the warden, the assistant warden, our teacher, our principal; all of us aides standing with the Deputy Director in front of our building, in front of our sign, “Campus Within Walls…A Learning Community”.

“I’ll be back”, the Deputy Director told us.  “And I’ll bring the Secretary.”  And our principal was thrilled.  She told me the next day that visit will mean more for our program, for our future, than we can imagine.  “The Governor will hear what we’re doing.  Things will change.  Wait and see Larry.”

I hope she is right.  I hope all this matters.  I hope the visit is the start of a new way for the Governor and politicians to view what’s going on in here and not just another pass through photo op.  Only time will tell.  And the aides all have plenty of that …time.