One Tutor’s Insights on Serving Time in Jail
Usually, a friend’s recommendation gifts you a new, binge-worthy show, or a hidden gem restaurant, or an exclusive vacation haven. For Sydney Dion, a friendly suggestion put her in the La Plata County Jail.
“The jail is very much a jail. Yes, everyone there is friendly and professional, but it’s still a jail,” she explains. She goes on to say, “And yet, when we sit down to study with an inmate, it’s just like a normal study room.”
She is referring to her work as a volunteer tutor for the Adult Education Center. Once each week, she sits in a small room with thick cinderblock walls and a heavy door that shuts and locks with a deep thud! Seated at a standard worktable, she and inmates review lessons covering social studies, reading, writing, and sometimes science.
“We teach strategies,” Sydney notes. “Whether it’s test-taking or this is the way you look for main ideas or the way you look for inferencing or interpret unfamiliar vocabulary.”
Initially, the AEC called on Sydney whenever a student confided they could not read. She was a retired teacher with expertise in literacy and reading interventions.
“Going in, I give [jail students]…not like formal assessments, but I’m listening to them read, seeing how many mistakes they make, or the cadence. And from the start they are saying: I can’t read, I can’t read. And here they are reading high school literature. There’s a different block here,” Sydney says.
I can’t becomes a mystery Sydney sets out to solve with the student. What is behind that statement? What experiences is it founded on? Usually, Sydney finds that students are loaded with talent, know-how, and potential in many subject areas, but these assets are locked behind past traumas, neglect, or abuse.
“[Students] think they can’t read, but really they haven’t been taught how to read for understanding,” she notes. “Or they haven’t read for ten years or twenty years. Or they haven’t felt successful at reading.”
Preparing a successful learning plan for a student at the jail can be tricky. Sydney has to swiftly identify which skills a student lacks or the knowledge gaps that might trip them up on the GED test. Whatever strategies she can muster must fit into the one-hour weekly block of time she may or may not get with each student. Many variables interrupt the steady flow of learning out at the jail. Students might have to forego tutoring to make a court appearances or meet with a lawyer. Their tutoring session may be revoked by jail staff as a disciplinary action. Or, as is too often the case, the jail may be short-staffed which means there is no deputy available to escort inmates from a cell block to the tutoring room where Sydney is ready to work.
On the days she and students can overcome these obstacles, Sydney makes it a point to familiarize herself with each student’s inner mental and emotional landscape. In her vast experience, how a student feels about school, learning, or themselves often shapes their ability to succeed—for better or for worse. Rather than pry or probe, she listens carefully for clues.
“They typically don’t open up,” she says. “You get the window into why they’re there, but mostly it’s about education and how they didn’t have the parents’ support. No one told them to go school. And so how easy it was to drop out in eighth grade is mind-boggling. They quit going and no one cared. Nobody checked in. It just sounds like they were on their own.”
Sydney uses those clues like keys, unlocking each student’s inner doubts. She helps them recognize their abilities. She becomes a source of confidence and self-reliance.
The Gift of Time
Sydney’s foray into tutoring started when a dear friend recommended it and the Adult Education Center. Soon after, she saw an ad in the paper calling for volunteers. Sydney wondered if it were fate. She also felt a little reluctant. She hadn’t taught in a classroom in years. How could she possibly be a good tutor?
Mustering all her courage, she showed up for an information session and was surprised at the culture of kindness guiding the AEC. She declares, “It’s such a friendly environment in the Adult Education Center!”
Current volunteers dispelled Sydney’s fears, noting that tutoring is not about being a “human Google.” Tutors are not expected to answer every question a student poses. Rather, they show students how to find answers.
As Sydney puts it, “In a lot of ways, you are sitting with them and providing space…a safe space to ask questions or the only time they’re given to practice reading. It’s like a gift of time. To any adult, I would say try it out. It may just be having a conversation with someone learning English. There’s a lot of support and supplies at the school. There’s so much need. And it’s so accessible. So try it out!”
Tutoring at the jail unlocked something in Sydney, as well. “It’s opened my eyes and made me more empathetic, especially to the inmates. I know they’re going to come back into the community. Education is a way for them to possibly escape poverty. I have never wanted to be the one to tell anyone ‘you can’t.’ It’s more like: Where do you want to go? What else have you been dreaming about?”
No End in Sight
The Pomp and Circumstance march rang through the cellblock. Sydney beamed as one of the jail students she had tutored received a GED diploma. Decked out in a satin robe and mortarboard cap, the student shook hands with the many deputies and support staff from across the jail. After the speeches, guests and inmates munched on cake prepared by the jail’s kitchen inmate workers.
When there were no more handshakes, high-fives, or hugs to collect, the new graduate took a slice of cake to a far away table where one other female inmate sat. They immediately fell into deep conversation. Sydney almost shed tears watching them interact.
She noted that the inmates were sisters. Despite being incarcerated at the same jail, they never saw each other. They were housed separately. To communicate, the sisters passed messages through irregular phone calls with their mother.
Sydney explains, “The mother is not a support. She is in her own vicious cycle. And yet, they both call in to her. They haven’t been able to talk as human beings or siblings for a long time. And just watching them chat and ask simple things like how are you?….” She chokes up. After a few incredulous shakes of the head, she resumes, “I used to think that jail was an ending point, but it’s not.”
To learn more about volunteering with the Adult Education Center, contact Libby Baumchen, 970-385-4324 or email lbaumchen@durangoadulted.org.