Psalm 25:16-22
Jesse had other plans. Speaking with him, he felt that all of his friends who had retired died shortly there after, and he wasn’t going to do that anytime soon. When I first met him he smoked and drank without a care in the world, and he reminded me of the proverbial ”bull in a china shop.” I had the chance to be with him at a conference in Lansing and I saw first hand how he was being treated by the current education administration. It was obvious they did not like him. He was too crude. However, they had to deal with him because of his intellect. He also had a lot of energy for his age, and while they were debating the latest things happening in prison education, Jesse was looking for the free doughnuts. Another one of our special education teachers, who was also at some of these conferences Jesse attended, made sure to call out his unsavory doughnut eating behavior, and pointed out that’s all Jesse did. Eating doughnuts and saying the prison teachers needed more class time was Jesses sole contribution at these conferences. This contradiction was voiced by the same teacher who witnessed it when Jesse professed he had the teachers backs at our staff meetings.
Jesse always redirected such attacks on his character. The MDOC had some teachers who used what should have been their preparation time between classes to go golfing. They were actually caught by the departments new administrator who immediately had them fired. She also wanted to see classroom schedules and to her chagrin, 42 prison schools had different inmate student schedules. They were all tailored for the prisons they operated in. The inconsistencies in the school schedules, led some teachers to take advantage of the down time, and unfortunately they didn’t use it for class preparation. Jesse made sure to announce this fact when his motive for expanding class time was questioned. However, he never defended his eating free doughnuts. That was something everyone got to do at the conferences if they could beat him to the table. Jesse wasn’t the fastest person in the room but once he established position, he was hard to be moved.
Eating doughnuts did not prevent him from contributing to the discussions, and I had to admit that as crude as he could be at times, they looked forward to hear what he thought. Especially, if it had to do with prisoner movement, and classroom management. Jesse had a lot of corrections education experience. He spoke of working at the Jolliet Correctional Facility in Illinois. He had me laughing when he informed me the administration would lock the prison down for security checks, and confiscate all the spud juice. Spud juice was the inmates alcohol that could be made from anything that would ferment and be vented. Jesse swore that some of the inmates there could make better whiskey and vodka than the known distilleries. When questioned how he knew this, he smiled and replied that once confiscated the administration would taste test it. “Yikes,” I thought out loud. “How much taste testing was done, ” I inquired. The answer, “if it was good, the prison stayed locked down until it was finished.” I shook my head in disbelief, and he started laughing, “those were the good ole days.” He was definitely a character and his legacy would continue for at least a few more years at Macomb. ..prison stories to be continued..
MJ-Way 