‘Greater than our worse mistake;’ Hundreds graduate with degrees at local prison

DAYTON — A college graduation ceremony in a place you would least expect it, behind barbed wires.

Hundreds of students at the Dayton Correctional Institution received their associate’s degree through Sinclair Community College’s prison education program.

Now, 169 names added to the 614 incarcerated individuals who completed the program in the past five years.

“Can hand to an employer and say to the employer ‘Here I am. I’m not who I was, this is who I am’ and invite them to the journey,” Cheryl Taylor, chief officer of prison education & returning citizen initiative at Sinclair Community College said.

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The prison education program offers seven associate degrees and 33 certificates.

Sinclair credits their 95 percent course competition rate to the instructor’s ability to understand the students.

“We see them, we see beyond that inmate number, that incarcerated person number, to who they are and will become,” Taylor said.

Danielle Carr was one of the graduates and speakers at the ceremony.

“I want to get my master’s degree, I’ll start the bachelor program in January. I want to come back and be a teacher,” Carr said.

Her mother and grandmother died during finals week.

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“I think they would be really proud. I held it together this whole time and my sister said ‘I want to take your tassel and hang it beside mom’s ashes on my rearview window’ ... now I’m weepy,” she said.

Graduates said despite the location, they’re not letting it define their journey.

“We are greater than our worse mistake. We can come back from anything. We are by design resilient,” Carr said.

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