Inside Limon, CO: A Correctional Administrator’s View of What Makes Education Work

When looking for what makes a program successful in the prison education environment, one must start with the three main factors. The three main factors we have discovered, here at Limon Correctional Facility, are synergy, being dynamic and providing reliability. This trinity makes up the core structure in which all learning inside a correctional facility, no matter the discipline, is based. In our dealing with Regis University these core principals are what establish their success consistently in the harshest of learning environments. This three headed hydra of an educational philosophy did not come easy, but as it grew, the two staffs melded philosophies, ideologies and beliefs to become the example of what can be accomplished when like minds care and to strive for a common goal.

Synergistically professors are able to encompass facility goals and processes into their everyday teaching and our liaisons here inversely will utilize the guidance from the college to drive home the learning mindset desired by the professors. Dynamically the professors and staff bend like reeds in the high winds, never breaking to whatever calamity may be the angst of the day for the students. Never are dispersions cast to lay blame, rather instead classes that are missed due to lock downs, familial issues or a plethora of other reasons are made up by Regis University. Extra study sessions are made available to students by the facility here to ensure the opportunity to regain any ground lost, all the while both sides check for the understanding of the curriculum by the students in a way as to ensure they are not being left behind.

The hard work and effort put into these first two pieces actually creates the third, the reliability. In a correctional facility nothing is worth more than your word and keeping it. Even if you are giving a student news they do not want to hear, the fact that they know you are being real and will follow through on whatever remedy you propose, softens the blow as they believe in your reliability. That reliability in turn becomes the mortar and brick in which they now use to build their new educational direction, work ethic and more importantly self beliefs. It shows them that no matter the circumstance or issue they are believed in, and that they can rely on the program to have their best interests in mind.

We are blessed here at Limon Correctional Facility to have the partnership with Regis University that allows us to foster an environment that is synergistic, dynamic and reliable. We happily watch as students hurry to classes where they are excited to hear what new exciting discoveries they will be learning, or who their favorite Regis instructor is (I know the answer but have been sworn to secrecy). This atmosphere in the facility is built on the work being done in these classrooms, by these teachers and staff and in such a way that futures are being changed and we are all the better for it

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