Nov 15, 2024
DEER LODGE Outside a window are high fences covered with razor wire. Its the Montana State Prison, but today a group of inmates who just graduated from the Last Mile Program feel like theyve escaped, and they have hope for their future.So it was like we were never in prison, we were always learning something, so it got us away from prison for, you know, six to eight hours a day, said graduate Christopher Banda.A ceremony was held for the second cohort to graduate from the year-long class that teaches computer coding to give inmates real-world skills once theyre released.I think it gives them, one, just a sense of accomplishment and also a sense of hope because they are being sent forth with skills that are employable in today's world, said the Department of Corrections Education Bureau Director Travis Anderson.Graduate Charles Green added, I feel great today. Ive accomplished something that was really hard. I tell people when I started, told people I didnt even know what an algorithm was. I thought it was a dancing alligator, but now I know the difference.For inmates like Matthew Rodriguez, the course has not only taught him a skill but also gives him a chance to make amends for the mistakes he made that got him in prison.Its just magical whats going on in here because I think its reforming what prisons really are. This isnt no more of a punishment, its more of, hey, were going to rise in prison, were going to become the best person we possibly can be to go back into communities, said Rodriguez.
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