70 percent of people in the Georgia correction system did not have a GED or a high school diploma when they entered the system, according to state officials.
Johnny Kauffman / WABE
On a recent sunny, weekday morning, it was hard to find parking outside Lee Arrendale State Prison in north Georgia, little over an hour drive from Atlanta.
You don’t just stumble on this prison. It’s hard to see around the sharp turns that take visitors here on roads past green hills, and dilapidated trailer homes.
Getting inside means passing through a metal detector and six locked doors. Personal cell phones must be turned over to security. Visitors are happy to do it because many of their daughters, sisters, and mothers are inside.
More than 200 smiling female inmates wearing blue and red graduation gowns over their tan, prison-issue jumpsuits wait to receive their GEDs.
Processional music plays out of a portable stereo as they take their seats.
A burly prison warden sings an inspirational song. The prisoners cry as class valedictorians give speeches, and awards to their favorite guards and teachers. A Georgia Department of Corrections staffer is sharing all of it on Snapchat.
“Somebody told me there’s no crying in corrections,” said Greg Dozier, head of the department, “A few times today I almost felt a tear. But it was a tear of joy.”
More Georgia inmates are getting high school diplomas in prison than ever before, Dozier said, about 2,300 in the last year. That’s nearly double the number from last year, he said.
Prisoners who complete the program can be rewarded by getting their sentence reduced by as much as a year.
Nicole Shaequita Lataria Sears was one of the graduates at Lee Arrendale.
Nicole Shaequita Lataria Sears grew up in Tifton, Ga. When she was arrested in 2015, Sears says she was working on her GED. Credit Johnny Kauffman/WABE
With her graduation robe off, back in her jumpsuit, Sears had trouble describing how she felt.
“I’m just everywhere right now,” she said. “I never imagined that I would end up being able to be at an event like this.”
When she was arrested for theft a few years ago, Sears said she was already taking GED classes.
“It’s what I really wanted in the first place for myself before I got put in this predicament,” she said, “And also what my mom wanted before she passed. Even though she’s not here I can still make her proud … up in heaven.”
Sears took welding classes in prison and said the GED will set her up to do well on the outside.
“Things don’t go the way we plan all the time,” she said.
Not only did she get her diploma on graduation day, Sears got her parole papers. She’s now out of prison.
Georgia’s prison population dropped from 55,516 in 2009 to 51,700 in 2015. Credit Johnny Kauffman/WABE
