REPORTS REVERSE CASE OF FORCED CLASS ENROLLMENT
by Anonymous Inmate
(Sep. 20, 2015) — [Editor’s Note: The following letter received last week from an inmate at the Northwest Correctional Complex (NWCX) in Tiptonville, TN details a different experience than that described by Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III beginning in late May of this year.
Fitzpatrick reported having been forced into the Pro-Social Life Skills (PSLS) course after having been told, as was the inmate whose letter appears below, that he qualified for no educational programs within the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) during the intake process.
After receiving a threat of physical harm from PSLS instructor Terry Hopper on June 19, Fitzpatrick was released from the class, only to be placed in Adult Basic Education (ABE) despite his possession of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.
One other inmate has also detailed forced participation in ABE over a two-year period without the ability to complete the course objectives.
The following new perspective relates that an inmate who wished to enroll in classes which he believed would benefit him was denied entry. However, the inmate connects the decisions made in his case to the “prisoners-for-profit” educational scheme reported by Fitzpatrick and others. “Very rarely does anyone make it out of here without some kind of programming. Sometimes more than one even sometimes the same program more than once,” the inmate wrote on page 4.
Since in his letter the prisoner admitted guilt and The Post & Email is not aware of whether or not he has an attorney or has filed an appeal, we have withheld his name.]
A larger-print version of the letter follows.
