Teaching High School Classes In Maximum Security: “Gives Me Hope for the Future”

For “Miss B,” a San Jose single mother of two young adults, teaching English literature and other subjects to about 70 men in a maximum-security California jail remains the single most moving and humbling experience in her more than 21 years in education. 

“It’s so rewarding to witness students reading their own prose or smiling when they master an algebra equation, how proud they are of themselves,” says the 44-year-old former middle school language arts teacher. She adds that teaching at the jail in some ways is more rewarding than teaching in public schools.   

“Sure, there are some resistant students, but most are curious and excited to show up in class,” says Miss B. 

During the last two years, she has taught general high school courses and led a drug and alcohol program at the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose where she says she’s learned a most important life lesson — “You are not your crime and your past does not define you.” 

“Many of the students have been convicted of violent crimes, but they still have a soul,” says Miss B. “They are still funny, smart people who have potential. I get the honor of being able to enter their home daily and form an open, respectful relationship with them. Meaning, the students are in classes to learn from me and show me respect, just as I show them respect. I also learn from them about their life experiences and have come to view things with a more empathetic lens.  I’m here to educate my students  as best I can during the time they are with me.”

In addition to teaching the core curriculum, Miss B. brings her life experience and own recovery to the jail, sharing her own story and helping inmates turn their narrative around. Miss B. knows that paying it forward also helps in her recovery as well.

As part of Five Keys Schools & Programs’ novel initiative to teach inmates at a higher level, she is passionate about the mission to turn lives around, forge opportunities and ultimately reduce recidivism and the financial and social costs to society. 

During “normal” times, there are challenges working inside a jail,— from lack of classroom space to technological limitations — but the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the obstacles. In order to keep on teaching these men and helping them to earn their diploma, and the possibility of a life that does not involve going back to being incarcerated, these days she drops off her lessons at the jail.  Jail staff deliver the curriculum to the inmates to complete, and then the completed work to Miss B. to review.

Miss B. jests:  “Some people asked me if I was hesitant to teach people who have murdered people. My response is that teaching middle school students, and how tough that can sometimes be, prepared me for this, and offenders are still deserving of an education.”

She says she was drawn to the opportunity to teach incarcerated students a couple of years ago when she stumbled on Five Keys during some Google research and discovered a news story clip featuring the organization.  She says she was immediately intrigued and was drawn to the mission.

“I have gained such an understanding of the odds some people face and the fact that we are all responsible for doing something to help.”

In addition to her teaching, Miss B. is also interested in training for and working with Five Keys’ restorative justice program, helping with counseling for and exploring how the programs can be brought to life at Five Keys navigation centers to help with the homeless population.

From Private School to the Prison System: Teacher committed to game-changing education for incarcerated students

“Through the small successes, our students began to feel what it’s like to achieve and embrace their personal strengths, gifts and abilities”

— Kris Davison, Five Keys teacher

For years, Kris Davison served as Director of Academic support for a private school in Santa Rosa, CA. Seeking something new — and a little more socially responsive to racial disparities and opportunities for all people — she switched to prison education, becoming a high school teacher with Five Keys Schools and Programs at the Sonoma County jails. 

“I was dissatisfied with what I considered a lack of equity and social justice for struggling and atypical students schoolwide,” says Davison, who launched a search for an educational organization that shared her core values. “I found Five Keys!”

"It’s been over a year since she resigned from her previous position and navigated thetransition, and the prison hallways, determined to find a unique way to help educatepeople in the prison system and put into action her belief that education is a gateway tosocial and economic mobility. 

“I get to go to work every day and make a positive difference,” she says. “I get to help each individual I meet, see their personal gifts and areas of needed growth with no judgement. We celebrate successes and work together for improvement.”

What she has found at Five Keys are a group of students highly motivated to surmount obstacles to further their education. During the last year, she has worked with more than 200 incarcerated students who have gaps in their schooling and who may one day be back out in the world. 

“I have noticed that most (of the students) in no way lack ability,” she says. “They lack academic confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Like most of us, they have experienced personal failure and disappointment — but in the extreme. 

“Part of our responsibility as Five Keys teachers, is to help students create a better future for themselves and their families.  We facilitate both hope and the knowledge that as they learn, they can do ‘better,” she says.

Davison says she has witnessed many of her students who have been released from custody make a beeline to continue their education with Five Keys through the community sites. Many have landed jobs. 

“They have discovered that they are capable and deserving of a better life,” she says. “To me, that is success!”

Installing hope and a new future

“Through the small successes, our students began to feel what it's like to achieve and embrace their personal strengths, gifts and abilities,” says Davison. “Through this growth, most students begin to have greater self-esteem.  As self-esteem increases, they make better choices, they can achieve more, and life is better. Isn't that what we want for each other as human beings?” 

To Davison, her life experience as wife, mom of five and grandma of nine is surprisinglyrelevant, teaching in prison. A first-generation college graduate, Davison was also thefirst female in her family to graduate high school. She has a bachelor’s degree in specialeducation and a master’s in education, with a special certification in autism." 

During the last five months, the COVID-19 pandemic has made teaching at the jails very challenging because of the quarantine. For one thing, the jails do not offer access to Internet and so unlike traditional high schools, they could not shift their curriculums online.  

“We met with the teachers and coordinators at the facilities — everyone we could — to try to brainstorm how are we going to do this when both the teachers are sheltering in place and the students are on lockdown?” she says.

“Covid has changed many things in our world,” she says. “What hasn't changed is our desire at Five Keys to facilitate learning and growth.”

At the jail in Sonoma County, Davison and the teaching team have continued to work with students (albeit with distance). With no access to the Internet, Zoom face-to-face meetings are not an option, but they still communicate “via good old-fashioned letters.”

“We write and send work into the jail for each student regularly,” she says. “Although this type of correspondence takes more time, we are all developing additional life skills.  We are learning to communicate more clearly. We are learning patience; we are better understanding the value of human connection. These are unintended consequences of the current challenges and I am so grateful for this opportunity! As we move forward, our hope is to safely begin meeting with students (through visiting glass) until we are again able to meet in person.”

Davison is passionately committed to the crucial role education can play in changing lives for people in jail. 

“What has become even more obvious to me while working at Five Keys is that human beings cannot DO better until they KNOW better,” she says. “If a person (through whatever background and circumstances they have come from) has not learned empathy, compassion or strategies and soft skills for life success, they are absolutely not able to fit into societal ‘norms.’’

“We expect that everyone around us has had the rights and privileges that we were afforded; things like a high school education, three meals a day, a supportive home, loving parents, etc.). The numbers do not lie. Many incarcerated students have not completed high school. They lack the basic knowledge or the diploma that will allow them to have meaningful employment. It is no wonder that the loss of hope has pushed them to a different path, one of self-destruction,” she adds.

At Five Keys, she says she and other teachers and staff are committed to helping each student they serve see their own greatness.  

“We work to help them become reflective practitioners and scholars,” she says. 

Statistics underscore the importance of what Davison and Five Keys are doing. Getting a high school degree reduces a person’s likelihood of re-incarceration by 43 percent, according to a report by the RAND Corporation

Davison says she has been humbled and is extremely grateful to have the opportunity to teach her students. 

“Being a teacher and a member of the Five Keys community has changed me and helped me to grow,” she says. “I, like many, was a bit apprehensive about teaching at an in-custody facility.  Worries of safety were forcibly expressed by family members and friends.

“What has happened though, is that I have learned so much through this opportunity. I have developed even more empathy for my students. My passion for social justice has only increased. Yes, I work with accused ‘criminals.’  I teach murderers, rapists, thieves, etc., and they know me by name and ask me for help. They allow me to see them and be a part of their lives at their lowest and perhaps most vulnerable. I don't live in fear, I live in gratitude for this opportunity,” she says.

Lessons learned on the frontlines: “My vocation is to facilitate learning; I am no longer burdened to judge.” 

Teacher provides care, support and education to inmates and upon reentry

“Enrolling in school gives our students the opportunity to focus on something productive and positive, to keep their minds and hearts occupied with something that gives them a sense of hope and personal accomplishment. Over and over I’ve seen these incredible shifts in attitude.”

Growing up in Santa Rosa, CA, Rose Kleiner had a challenging time in high school and for numerous reasons, wasn’t on track to graduate. At 17, she moved to San Francisco and completed her high school education through an independent study program and then through attending an alternative school. 

Grateful for the people and opportunities that shepherded her through that time in her life, Kleiner said her hope was that in some way she could reach back and help others dealing with similar struggles to push others to challenge their boundaries and struggles and pursue their own educational success. 

That’s exactly what she has been doing for the last almost five years as a teacher for Five Keys Schools and Programs at the San Francisco County Jail #4 and the Learning Center in the Adult Probation Department, both located at 850 Bryant, San Francisco. Since 2016 she has taught hundreds of inmates and community members seeking to earn their high school degree.

“One thing I really enjoy about teaching at Five Keys is you get to see all kinds of successes,” says Kleiner, 34. “Watching my literacy students making huge strides in their reading skills or my ESL students improve their English is so awesome, and you can see how it immediately changes their lives for the better. High fiving a student when they pass their final GED test, handing a student their diploma, or helping a graduate enroll in CCSF literally never gets old.”

She says one of her most gratifying moments as a Five Keys teacher has been when the students she worked with in custody show up at the community site where she teaches. Carrying the plastic bag with their belongings after being released from incarceration, they have told her they wanted to continue their education. 

“Being able to provide that sense of continuity and support during the incredibly challenging period of reentry is such an honor and a joy,” she says.

After earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University and a Master’s in the same subject from the University of Colorado Boulder, she became an English teacher and worked for two years at Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy in San Francisco. 

“I had gone to graduate school with the intention of completing a PhD in literature and I ended up getting a funding package that included a teaching assignment,” she says. “It turned out that academia wasn’t for me and I left with a Master’s degree, but I realized I loved teaching adults. A friend of mine was working for Five Keys and suggested that I apply, and here we are.” 

Thanks to the creativity of Kleiner and the teachers and staff at Five Keys Schools and Programs and local Sherriff’s departments, they have not let the COVID-19 pandemic stop them from educating and serving up their mission. 

There is no stopping Five Keys Now “The pandemic has been so tough on everyone — students and teachers, incarcerated and in the community,” she says. “People are really struggling to fulfill their basic needs, which means education can move to the back burner. Many of our students are still working on their technology skills, which can make distance learning an extra challenge. And it is just hard for everyone not to have that face-to-face interaction and relationship building component, especially in custody where communication options are very limited.”

But, they have been able to continue serving students both in the community and in custody during shelter-in-place with online learning, mailing/dropping off work, phone calls, and just generally getting creative.

“I know that it’s meant a lot to our students to have this tie to normalcy and something positive to focus their energy on,” she says. “For my incarcerated students especially, just knowing that Five Keys is still there, still caring for them and still working for them, has helped them stay grounded and positive during an extraordinarily difficult time.”

Education is critical for the incarcerated“Being in jail is just such a difficult time — the worst combination of boring and stressful,” says Kleiner. ‘People are separated from their families and unsure of what their futures hold. Enrolling in school gives our students the opportunity to focus on something productive and positive, to keep their minds and hearts occupied with something that gives them a sense of hope and personal accomplishment. Over and over I have seen these incredible shifts in attitude. Watching our students move from a sometimes really negative place to a mindset of goal setting, feeding their intellectual curiosity, and really building their practical skills never stops amazing me.”As a Five Keys teacher, Kleiner has learned that the human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to us. “I think teaching at Five Keys has made me more patient and empathetic,” she says. “It’s also just brought so much joy into my life. It’s such a privilege to get to form these relationships with my students, to really get to know them as people and to feel like a positive force in their lives.”Along the way, Kleiner, who lives with her husband and cats, says she’s learned a lot of lessons from her teaching experience at Five Keys. “I think I’ve learned how to meet people where they are with warmth and non-judgment,” she says. “I’ve learned that it’s essential to really take time to listen and form a relationship with every single individual student, no matter what. And I’ve learned that it’s my job as a teacher to never stop learning how to be better!”