Jesse

 Jesse said what ever he wanted. He had no filter. He was beholding to know one. I couldn’t help but like him. When I interviewed for the trades instructor position at the prison he told me as I was leaving that they had over 240 applicants for the position at this prison. However, he wanted me. “What would it take to steal me from EDS/General Motors?” With a graduate degree I expected to be paid at that level, and he agreed. That would put me in the middle of the civil service pay range at the trades instructor master degree level, and I could accept that. He informed me he could make that happen. We agreed on a start date. He was all business. We shook hands and he informed me civil service would be contacting me. That was my introduction to school principal Jesse Vail. Over the years I worked for him he, was one of the best. His honesty in this environment was his number one quality. You could always depend on his word. So two weeks after starting and receiving my first official paycheck I was pissed to see I wasn’t being payed at what we had agreed on.

 I immediately brought this to his attention, and he responded by calling our personnel manager. I thought it could be taken care of immediately, but it took over a year and Jesse’s unwavering assistance made it happen eventually. He even made sure I received back pay. He encouraged me throughout my career, and was glad I had agreed to bring a horticulture program to Macomb Correctional. During his tenure as a School Principal I couldn’t believe the things he would say to both staff and inmates on a regular basis. I heard an inmate student complain that “Jesse can’t talk to him like that because he’s a grown man.” Jesse’s response was memorable, ” your a grown man alright, G-R-O-A-N, GROAN, that’s all you do! Go back to class and learn something.” With that said, he kicked him out of his office groaning the whole time. The inmate couldn’t leave fast before Jesse added, “come back to see me when you get your GED. You won’t be released from prison until you do”

  I actually had heard that Jesse had an inmates probation pulled because they hadn’t completed their GED requirement. He referred to that inmate as “Billy Madison.” When talking to my colleague about his student, (who our school principal called, “Billy Madison,”) He informed me that Jesse had the inmates parole pulled, and the inmate was mad as hell. Jesse would come by my colleagues class room and ask him out loud, “how is Billy Madison doing?” My colleague said the inmate would get totally pissed off but kept working on getting his GED. I don’t know how well the departments policy was working on inmates needing to get their GED’s, if they didn’t graduate from high school, before being released, but it seemed to be motivating that young man to get his. Jesse was well known in the education profession and I remember an incident when the current education administration was looking to thin out the number of principals in the prison schools. They decided that principals with an administrative certification were the only ones they would retain. I believe they thought at the time that Jesse would be let go. However, he was one of a few administrative principals who had that certification. Once they found out he was one of the few credentialed principals, I was told they changed their plans, and a reduction in principal administrative staff wasn’t being implemented. I had a feeling they didn’t like him that much, and wanted him to retire. But,  … PRISON STORIES TO BE CONTINUED...

              HEBREWS 12: 1-3