Page Eight
T
t.4:

THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY MAGAZINE

April "10, 1977


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l

(Continued from Page 3)
mean you forget one population.
Jackson shold be used as a
standard (to indicate) that wo-
ien are getting screwed. The
women are ont being treated
equally."
A LTHTOUGH DeHoCo's aca-
demic offerings (with the ex-
ception of the Jackson bache-
lor's degree program) may be
equivalent to those at men's in-
stitutions, the attitudes and level
of expectations that DeHoCo's
staff hold for the inmates may
be more damaging than any dis-
parity in the programs could
ever be.
Corrections Department offi-
cials estimate that from one-
fifth to one-fourth of all inmates
entering state institutions are
functionally illiterate. Willette
says that "it's the state's dream
to have every women reach a
sixth grade level."
She says she tries to encour-
age the women "especially those
under 21" to work for that goal
and "then if they have the in-,
terest and ability they can go
on and perhaps eventually earn.
their GED.
"We think of them as our
youngsters here, . . . I try to
encourage every woman who
comes through the door but we
don't always succed. Some -of
the older inmates think that
school is kid stuff.' In that case,
she adds, "We try, but we have

so many students we don't get
down on our knees."
The teachers and counselors
have a lot of difficulty helping
tie women "accept their limita-
tions and yet maintain their self
esteem" according to Costin.
"The women would kill me for
this, but a lot of (DeHoCo's)
women don't have the inner
strength-the fortitude-to com-
plete educational requirements
for the professions.
"We have people who say they
want to be a social worker but
if they can't make it through the
beginning courses how can they
exnect to earn a degree?"
While the average sentence for
women in DeHoCo is two to
three years, men have tradi-
tionally received longer sen-
tences. Costin claims-this differ-
ence contributes to the discrep-
ancy in men's and women's
academic opportunities. Since
the state often has men incar-
cerated for lengthy periods, it
has time to carry him through
years of training. "But we have
the women for such a short span
of time. We try to teach a wo-
man a trade so she can earn
money as soon as possible and
the if she wants to go to school
later (after her release) she
can."
w EHOCO is 5o years old. It
was first run by nuns, then
by the city of Detroit and finally
by the state. Ownership will go

bark to Detroit this summer. All
the state's felons and some of
Detroit's misdemeanants are
housed in its run down and over-
crowded cottages.
Dehoco was built to hold
around 280 women, 34 women in
each of its eight cottages with
extra beds in the hospital. As
of March 452 women were cram-
med into the buildings. Some
of the extra wompen sleep in the
matrons quarters, others have
been moved into the school's
converted sewing room.
This July the state will trans-
fer all the felons housed at
DeHoCo to a new constructed
prison just outside Ypsilanti.
With the move corrections offic-
ials say new programs appro-
priate to the evolving image of
independent women will be de-
veloped.
They point to the elimination
of a cosmetology lab and the
addition of two new vocational
training programs - a distribu-
tive education course and an
"American industries" shop
class.
Bill Kime, the state's deputy
director of programming ex-
plained that the cosmetology
lab was scraped so that the
space could be used for class-
room instruction. The "main
academic emphasis will be on
literacy training" according to
Kime but some contact will
"probably be made with the lo-

cal universities -
Michigan and possibly
set up programs ,for
women.

Eastern
U-M" to
qualified

Behind these promises how-
ever, the entent ,of the states
commitment to a new orienta-
tion in programming remains.
unclear.
Deputy director of treatment,
Robert Berles, who is specifical-
ly in charge of the vocational
programming says he really
isn't sure what the distributive
education course will cover. It
may center on selling and mar-
keting of goods but "it might
just be cashier training. I don't
know," he said.
Kime explains what he sees
as the department's plight: "We
have had pressure from wom-
en's groups to avoid traditional
role training but we have to
prepare people so that they will
be able to get a job.
"There's no sense training a
person if they won't be able to
get a job because of prejudices
in the employment market, but
on the other hand we don't want
to perpetuate and support those
prejudices either."
"THIS IS AN AREA in which
we have sought for sug-
gestions," continues Kime. "The
state set up an advisory com-
mittee to develop new programs
for the women. The committee
met for about a year and a half

but unfortunately that committee
never came up with anything."
Concludes Berles, "I've nev-
er had any, feelings of confi-
dence that (the department) is
developing programs in the niew
prison in the right direction."
In Dawn, DeHoCo's newspa-
per, one of the prison's own for-
mer corrections officers had
these words to say about its
rehabilitative programs:
"Being on the job at DeHoCo
has shown me how the system
is still working toward making
women 'real good servants!'
With a new age and way of liv-
ing headed our way it is time
for programs teaching skills
and professions, rather than run
of the mill 'How to be a good.
wife and/or mother; to be de-
veloped."
Yet though prisoners and em-
pathetic personnel may cry loud-
ly that the time has come for
a change; though they may
point to the move to the new
Yr silanti prison as an ideal time
to implement them, it is hard
to tell if the planners of the
Ypsilanti facility are listening.
For while a heavy uncertain-
ty over the nature of the aca-
demic and vocational offerings
reigns supreme, corrections of-
ficials are deftly putting the fin-
ishing touches on the prison's
physical plant and publicly ap-
plauding its progressive design.
If priorities mean anything....

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**N


lI

I

ff

New ) %(''


Falcoiie


IContinued frozm Page 5)
One feature of the Women's
Correctional Facility which
corrections officials and taxpay-
ers alike are applauding is the
increased security provisions.
Unlike the almost invisible
perimeter security at DeHoCo,
there will be a chain link fence
as well as an electronic alarm
system encasing the Pittsfield
facility.
"Not as maximum," as Nor-
thern Michigan Prison in Mar-
quette, says Corrections De-
partment Director Perry John-

son, but "more maximum" than
Southern Michigan Prison in
Jackson.
"It is rather foolish that tax-
payers pay the expense of a
trial and then the women come
here (DeHoCo) and find it so
easy to escape," said DeHoCo
school supervisor M. J. Willette,
in reference to the facility's
embarrassingly high escape
rate.
The inmates are not as joy-
ous. "I could have broken out
the day I got here," claimed a
recent DeHoCo arrival. "Over
there," she said, haphazardly
motioning in no particular di-
rection to what will soon be her
new home, "I hear I won't be
able to do that if I need to."
There is one advantage -
however temporary-to the new
facility that both inmates and
administrators look forward to.
Unlike DeHoCo, the Women's
Correctional Facility will be
clean and liveable. For a while
at least, the women won't have
cockroaches for roommates,
and there should be plenty of
heat come wintertime, not to
mention, the luxury of air con-

ditioning in the summer
months.
"It's hard to say if improv-
ing the physical plant is the
answer to all the problems,"
said Mintzes, "but at least it
will be more humane."
As for improvements in the
educational and rehabilitative
programs-no one's sure.
"We're very excited about the
move," says Willette, "be-
cause the school is beautiful.
It's a whole building unto itself
which we've never head. And
there's a lovely gym . . . No,
we don't know if we'll be able
to offer any more classes, but
the facility will be much nicer,
We'll still be offering business
vocational and food services
programs, they're very popu-
lar. And besides, that's where
the jobs are, my friend:. People
are eating out . . . No, we
haven't heard much about ex-
actly what programs we'll be
able to offer but the teachers
and I try to put forth a very
positive attitude toward the
new prison so the women will
stop some of the silly rumors.
You should do this too, if you
talk to them. Be positive."

(Coninued from P,.e 7)
l escapes from Falconer Prison
(in Count of Monte Cristo style)
by concealing himself in a body
bag actually intended to trans-
port the corpse of another pris-
oner. Here we have symbolic
death and re-birth into freedom.
But it is hard to perceive of Far-
ragut as being free in anything
more than a physical sense. He
has yet to come to terms with
his past, he is more alone than
ever, he cannot alter the fact
that he is still a murderer. Chee-
ver never achieves convincingly
in Farragut the sense of spirit-
ual reawakening he seems to be
striving for.
Cheever fares much better
with his minor characters. Far-
ragut's bitchy wife is perfectly
drawn, as she comforts him in a
visit to the prison with state-
ments like "You are the biggest
mistake I ever made . . . I
thought that my life was one
hundred percent frustration, but
when you killed your brother I
saw that I had underestimated
my' problems."
It is in the person of one of

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Farragut's f e I 1 o w prisoners,
known only as Chicken Number
Two, that Cheever best captures
the desperation and emptiness
of prison life. At Christmas all
the prisoners have their pictures
taken and sent to their families
or friends, but Chicken, knowing
no one outside the prison, writes
on his mailing form: Mr. and
Mrs. Santa Claus. Icicle Street.
The North Pole, "The photogra-
pher smiled broadly and was
looking around the room to
share this joke with the rest of
them when suddenly he grasped
the solemnity of Chicken's lone-
liness. No one at all laughed at
this hieroglyph of pain, and
Chicken, sensing the stillness at
this proof of his living death,
swung his head around, shot up
his skinny chin and said gaily,
'My left profile's my best',"
V EGARDLESS OF how well
Cheever succeeds in making
Farragut convincing, and aside
from speculation as to whether
he has really created a great
American novel, etc. etc., these
secondary characters, a 1 o n g
with Cheever's descriptions of
prison life, combine to make
Falconer a powerful work.
Read and Use
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pottery forms
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kebana
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Tu.-Frr. 10-6
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ALL MEALS INCLUDE:
f Steaming Basket of
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Serving Dinner 5-10 p.m.

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BAR-B-QUE BEEF RIBS
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INSIDE-

DelioCo prison:
Theystill teach woinei
those samec old thin;;

Is Mchigans s
new correctional
alit : improvement?

120 E. LIBERTY
761-1470

- - ------ ---

SUpplement to The Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor, Michigan