Five Garner Inmates Receive High School Diplomas

By Andrew Gorosko

It was similar to a high school graduation ceremony — the caps and gowns, the proud parents looking on, and the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

But in other ways, it was quite different.

The commencement took place February 26 in a heavily secured visiting room in the heart of Garner Correctional Institution, a 260,000-square-foot, high-security state prison on Nunnawauk Road.

After the five Garner graduates, their families, and other inmate students had settled in, Angela Jalbert, Garner high school’s acting principal, addressed the group, explaining the meaning and value of working to attain a general equivalency diploma. It was the first such ceremony held at Garner since 1998.

The prison, which opened in late 1992, is designed to hold 750 high-security inmates. A consolidation program is underway that will concentrate inmates with serious mental health problems at Garner for specialized treatment. When the consolidation is complete, the prisoner population is projected to be about 650. The Garner prisoner population on March 2 was 692 inmates.

Ms Jalbert said the five graduates have expended much effort to obtain their diplomas, considering the atmosphere of negativity that exists within prisons.

“Never, ever, ever, ever give up,” she said.

Reverend Calabrese, the Garner chaplain, provided an invocation.

Warden Giovanny Gomez addressed the attentive graduates as other students looked on.

As the ceremony proceeded, correction officers who were positioned at electronic control panels observed closely. The large room was under surveillance by multiple video cameras.

Keynote speaker Michael Roeder is the state Department of Correction’s (DOC) transition coordinator for students. Mr Roeder helps students make the transition from life in prison to life in the larger world when their sentences end.

Mr Roeder spoke about personal achievement and the value of a diploma, which symbolizes hard work, patience, and diligence. He urged the graduates not to underestimate the value of a general equivalency diploma, explaining that it will increase their earning potential after they are released from prison.

“Today could be the first day when prides sets in,” he said. He urged the graduate inmates to seek out the DOC’s transition services before they are released at the end of their sentences.

Inmates who keep off drugs after they are released from prison will have better outcomes in the larger world, he said.

Graduates Wilfredo Ortiz and Orlando Rivera gave talks at the ceremony. Also graduating were St Clair Burden, Christopher Vitti, and Scott Managan.