Something to Hope For

Something to Hope For During his first weeks on his new job, one question kept haunting Herbert Gragert, 34: Why had he ever left his pleasant position as school superintendent of Langdon, Kans. to take on such a strange assignment? Last June Warden Arthur Hoffman of Kansas State Penitentiary had persuaded him to take over the prison's faltering school for inmates; but there was no staff and the only facilities available were two small rooms in a storage area. Then one day Gragert suddenly realized that his project was a success. "You see that man over there?" a prisoner asked him, pointing to one of Gragert's model students. "He was a member of Murder, Inc., and they threw the book at him in Kansas City. Now look at him. You've got it made."

Though many U.S. prisons have educational programs, probably none has met with more enthusiasm than the school at Kansas State Penitentiary. At first, the men looked at Gragert with deep suspicion. But with only one civilian assistant to help him, Gragert managed to find 25 inmates willing and able to serve on his faculty. Though their crimes ranged from theft to murder and only one had ever taught before, the professors quickly took hold. Gradually, Gragert's campus spread to 18 rooms, his enrollment to 284. By last week one out of every five prisoners was getting an education.

The school teaches everything from elementary reading and high-school math to such vocational subjects as typing and radio repair. Some students are practically illiterate; one lifer is a high-school graduate who wants a "refresher"; at least three have IQs of around 140. Some are so eager that they come to class after working at regular prison jobs from midnight to 8 a.m. No matter who they are, Gragert refuses to coddle them. He has set his standards so high that a diploma from the school will be recognized as the equivalent of one from any accredited Kansas high school. "The men must work for their grades," says he. "We have already flunked a few. We are not going to make a snap out of this or let it be something to fill in time."

As a result of the program, the once-neglected prison library now circulates up to 500 books a week. But the most important of its accomplishments is the change it has brought about in the attitude of the prisoners. Among those it has helped:

P:A two-time escapee who suffered from an obsession that no one would ever trust him. Now a teacher of Spanish, he has apparently abandoned his plans of escape. t| A prisoner who was so depressed that he once tried to commit suicide began teaching mathematics, proved such a success that he is now also happily teaching physics.

P:A 28-year-old, out of prison only 18 months since he was 15, not only teaches illiterates but laces his instruction with comments on the folly of crime. P:A young man once on the FBI's most-wanted list, and described as vicious, depraved and hopeless, has at last settled down and is one of the most satisfactory students in the eighth grade.

To Warden Hoffman, the main goal of the school is to give the inmates enough education and training so that they will be able to get jobs when they get out. What the school has actually done is to give the men something to hope for. Says one of its students: "We don't talk any more about the jobs we can pull when we get out. We talk about the jobs we can qualify ourselves for."

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