Prison college grads earn degrees while serving sentences
It’s college graduation time behind the walls of the state correctional facility in Stillwater, Minn. Three students don royal blue graduation mortarboards and robes. What you can’t see underneath are their gray prison uniforms.
Larry Foster, Lennell Martin and Micah Morson are seated to the left of the wood-paneled dais. Ginny Arthur, president of Metro State University, pronounces them graduates.
“By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Minnesota state and the state of Minnesota, I hereby confer upon you the certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree for which you are recommended with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities pertaining there to you make move your tassels.”
The gathered crowd of 100 or so family members, professors and corrections staff cheer at the pronouncement.
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The new college graduates break into smiles.
The gathered family members, mentors and professors shed tears and share hugs. Two of the men — Foster, who is 70 years old and Martin, who is 46 – received a bachelor of arts in individualized studies from Metro State University. The third graduate, 27-year-old Morson, earned an associate’s degree in liberal arts from Minneapolis College.
The old-school student of the group, Foster, reflected on the moment with his daughter by his side.
“It feels like I’ve stepped into a new level of my life. This college and these professors have really helped transform me into a new and improved man,” he said. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be able to take what they’ve given me and give back to the other men in the institution.”
Foster’s daughter, Shonnamarie Jefferson, said her father has been an inspiration to her. Studying for the degree gave “him something to look forward to inside of these walls,” Jefferson said. “This was a tremendous thing to come here to watch.”
The Stillwater graduates are part of the first cohort of the TREC Program, which stands for Transformation and Reentry through Education and Community. It’s a partnership among Metro State, Minneapolis College and the University of Minnesota which began two years ago. The program is also in place at Lino Lakes and Faribault correctional facilities in Minnesota.
The program’s director at Metro State, Travis Sands, says the program’s aims are what one might expect: personal and career advancement. But just as key, he adds, is the initiative’s other goal — to ensure role modeling for incarcerated people in Minnesota.
“Those students who come through our programs are going to be and are critically positioned to offer their colleagues who are incarcerated alongside them with the sort of wisdom that has come through their higher education,” said Sands, a few days after the ceremony. The graduates offer proof that “there are other opportunities, there are other modes to be in the world," he added.
Martin acknowledged as much when he gave a shout out to his fellow incarcerated colleagues in his ceremony speech.
He said the other men at Stillwater have been supportive. “Our incarcerated peers who are not currently in the TREC program, who have been inspired themselves, or just being encouraging … because they know that it’s a great opportunity," he said.
“My success is yours,” Martin added.
Martin and Foster both say they want to pursue master’s degrees once the program launches that initiative. Morson says his next degree will be a bachelor of arts.
Martin says he can describe his graduation day to one emotion.
“Gratitude. That’s my word for today,” said Martin. “I’m just very grateful and feeling optimistic about being an advocate for change. [I] hope that this transcends beyond these walls.”
Morson had surprise guests at the graduation: his sister Mercedes Morson and grandmother.
“I’m just really proud of him. I’m happy that he took the initiative to get it done,” Mercedes Morson said.
Morson says he feels good about his new degree.
“I feel accomplished,” he said. “It’s probably like my first main accomplishment ever in my life.”
Correction (Aug. 10, 2023): An earlier version of this story misidentified a speaker. The story has been updated.