blessed_be
01-03-2004, 11:20 AM
Prison school teaches a new sentence
Inmates at S.F.'s Five Keys work on high school diplomas
Simone Sebastian, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 3, 2004
In many ways, Five Keys Charter School looks like any San Francisco high school.
The white cinderblock classroom walls are covered with students' artwork and multicolor maps of the United States. Students sit in neat rows and raise their hands before asking a question.
But this school is different.
At Five Keys, the school uniforms are bright orange and there are only two majors: drug rehabilitation and violence prevention.
Here, students don't need a hall pass to leave a classroom -- they need a police officer and a metal detector.
The doors of Five Keys opened in September to San Francisco's accused and convicted drug dealers and violent criminals, touting itself as the nation's first charter school in a jail. Approved by the San Francisco School District and run by the Sheriff's Department out of two county jails and a site for former inmates on Bryant Street, the school allows its students -- both men and women -- to earn high school diplomas while serving time or awaiting trial.
Though the county jail system has offered vocational courses and G.E.D. testing in the past, Five Keys is its first attempt to give inmates a structured path to a high school diploma. Between their academic courses, students receive drug rehabilitation therapy or anti-violence counseling designed to help them stay out of jail once they leave.
"When prisoners get out of jail and come back into the community, they need tools to earn a living," said San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who first dreamed of the charter school a year ago when funding for other educational programs was cut.
"If they don't have the minimum to get a job, a high school degree, they don't have a paycheck and they'll find another way to get money. We'd like to see them not go out and sell drugs anymore."
The San Francisco School Board was originally skeptical when he first presented the plans for Five Keys last summer, Hennessey said, but it eventually approved the charter -- unanimously.
Hennessey said he believes the charter school format is well suited for a jail. Free from the restrictions of state testing and school district rules, administrators are able to mold the curriculum and teaching styles to fit their unusual student population.
Run on about $1.2 million per year from the state, Five Keys offers almost any class available at a typical high school -- from U.S. history to algebra to cooking.
Because the jail population is so fluid, semesters are only a month long, and students spend four hours a day in one class.
"These are really intensive classes," said Sgt. Kevin Paulson, who works at jail No. 7 in San Bruno. "They go to class first thing in the morning. They have a little time to play ping pong or write a letter to mom in the afternoon, then we're sending them to class again."
Principal Mary O'Mara said despite the obvious differences, she tries to keep Five Keys as close to a normal school setting as possible.
Most of the 10 teachers have no previous experience with prisoners, largely coming from local public schools. O'Mara, a tall, thin woman with blond hair, looks much better suited for her previous job -- a teacher at an elite Catholic school in Marin County.
"I really didn't think I'd get this job. I thought, 'They're not going to put me in a jail,' " O'Mara said.
But she found that experience in criminology was not necessary.
"We didn't want it to feel like a jail," O'Mara said, waving at a student as he exited Classroom C on his way to lunch. "We want it to feel like a school."
The Five Keys teachers agree that the experience has been easier and more fulfilling than their previous jobs. Here, they don't have to compete with outside distractions for their students' attention.
"We all had fears coming in," said Meredith McMonigle, who applied to teach history at Five Keys after seeing an ad in Craigslist.org. "But the men have really exceeded our expectations in terms of their interest, effort and their critical thinking abilities."
One of Five Keys' 200 students has already earned a high school diploma. In the school's first two months of operation, students' academic levels increased by an average of 1.7 grades.
Still, teaching in a jail has its problems.
With inmates routinely transferring in and out of jail, every day is like the first day of school for teachers at Five Keys.
"I can't have a lesson carry over from one day to the next, because we'll have to backtrack," said American literature teacher Alice Hargis. "And we can't make assumptions about what people already know and what they understand. "
Finding quality teachers with open minds is not always easy, O'Mara added.
"You're in a classroom with a bunch of men and you know some of them are violent offenders. That takes a certain type of person," she said.
Most of the students at Five Keys said they are glad to have the opportunity to further their education, but some believe the school would be a better service outside jail walls.
"A lot of money is being spent to make this work, but where a school is really needed is out in the community," said Walter Brooks, 37, who was taking a break recently from reading about the aftermath of the Civil War. "There's a correlation between dropouts and the people who end up here. If the money was there to retain students and get better educations, you'd have more students interested in school and not going to the streets."
Still, inmates who have attended Five Keys believe they are better equipped to succeed.
"When I was a kid, I didn't know that without a high school diploma, I couldn't do anything," said Raymond Betancourte, 33, who is serving a jail term for drug dealing. "I thought it was enough if I was strong enough to use a hammer. But you need a diploma just to get a job at McDonald's."
Betancourte's reading and writing levels have jumped from an eighth-grade to an 11th-grade level since he entered Five Keys in September. He said he plans to go to college when he is released and wants to become a counselor for at-risk youth.
"The only reason I think like that now is because of this charter school, " Betancourte said. "I think San Francisco is going to be a better city because of this school."
Inmates at S.F.'s Five Keys work on high school diplomas
Simone Sebastian, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 3, 2004
In many ways, Five Keys Charter School looks like any San Francisco high school.
The white cinderblock classroom walls are covered with students' artwork and multicolor maps of the United States. Students sit in neat rows and raise their hands before asking a question.
But this school is different.
At Five Keys, the school uniforms are bright orange and there are only two majors: drug rehabilitation and violence prevention.
Here, students don't need a hall pass to leave a classroom -- they need a police officer and a metal detector.
The doors of Five Keys opened in September to San Francisco's accused and convicted drug dealers and violent criminals, touting itself as the nation's first charter school in a jail. Approved by the San Francisco School District and run by the Sheriff's Department out of two county jails and a site for former inmates on Bryant Street, the school allows its students -- both men and women -- to earn high school diplomas while serving time or awaiting trial.
Though the county jail system has offered vocational courses and G.E.D. testing in the past, Five Keys is its first attempt to give inmates a structured path to a high school diploma. Between their academic courses, students receive drug rehabilitation therapy or anti-violence counseling designed to help them stay out of jail once they leave.
"When prisoners get out of jail and come back into the community, they need tools to earn a living," said San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who first dreamed of the charter school a year ago when funding for other educational programs was cut.
"If they don't have the minimum to get a job, a high school degree, they don't have a paycheck and they'll find another way to get money. We'd like to see them not go out and sell drugs anymore."
The San Francisco School Board was originally skeptical when he first presented the plans for Five Keys last summer, Hennessey said, but it eventually approved the charter -- unanimously.
Hennessey said he believes the charter school format is well suited for a jail. Free from the restrictions of state testing and school district rules, administrators are able to mold the curriculum and teaching styles to fit their unusual student population.
Run on about $1.2 million per year from the state, Five Keys offers almost any class available at a typical high school -- from U.S. history to algebra to cooking.
Because the jail population is so fluid, semesters are only a month long, and students spend four hours a day in one class.
"These are really intensive classes," said Sgt. Kevin Paulson, who works at jail No. 7 in San Bruno. "They go to class first thing in the morning. They have a little time to play ping pong or write a letter to mom in the afternoon, then we're sending them to class again."
Principal Mary O'Mara said despite the obvious differences, she tries to keep Five Keys as close to a normal school setting as possible.
Most of the 10 teachers have no previous experience with prisoners, largely coming from local public schools. O'Mara, a tall, thin woman with blond hair, looks much better suited for her previous job -- a teacher at an elite Catholic school in Marin County.
"I really didn't think I'd get this job. I thought, 'They're not going to put me in a jail,' " O'Mara said.
But she found that experience in criminology was not necessary.
"We didn't want it to feel like a jail," O'Mara said, waving at a student as he exited Classroom C on his way to lunch. "We want it to feel like a school."
The Five Keys teachers agree that the experience has been easier and more fulfilling than their previous jobs. Here, they don't have to compete with outside distractions for their students' attention.
"We all had fears coming in," said Meredith McMonigle, who applied to teach history at Five Keys after seeing an ad in Craigslist.org. "But the men have really exceeded our expectations in terms of their interest, effort and their critical thinking abilities."
One of Five Keys' 200 students has already earned a high school diploma. In the school's first two months of operation, students' academic levels increased by an average of 1.7 grades.
Still, teaching in a jail has its problems.
With inmates routinely transferring in and out of jail, every day is like the first day of school for teachers at Five Keys.
"I can't have a lesson carry over from one day to the next, because we'll have to backtrack," said American literature teacher Alice Hargis. "And we can't make assumptions about what people already know and what they understand. "
Finding quality teachers with open minds is not always easy, O'Mara added.
"You're in a classroom with a bunch of men and you know some of them are violent offenders. That takes a certain type of person," she said.
Most of the students at Five Keys said they are glad to have the opportunity to further their education, but some believe the school would be a better service outside jail walls.
"A lot of money is being spent to make this work, but where a school is really needed is out in the community," said Walter Brooks, 37, who was taking a break recently from reading about the aftermath of the Civil War. "There's a correlation between dropouts and the people who end up here. If the money was there to retain students and get better educations, you'd have more students interested in school and not going to the streets."
Still, inmates who have attended Five Keys believe they are better equipped to succeed.
"When I was a kid, I didn't know that without a high school diploma, I couldn't do anything," said Raymond Betancourte, 33, who is serving a jail term for drug dealing. "I thought it was enough if I was strong enough to use a hammer. But you need a diploma just to get a job at McDonald's."
Betancourte's reading and writing levels have jumped from an eighth-grade to an 11th-grade level since he entered Five Keys in September. He said he plans to go to college when he is released and wants to become a counselor for at-risk youth.
"The only reason I think like that now is because of this charter school, " Betancourte said. "I think San Francisco is going to be a better city because of this school."