The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason.
– Jelly Roll
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The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason.
– Jelly Roll
Alone for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement as part of his 10.5-year prison sentence, Cordero Holmes could not see his future as a great dad,
Dr. Stella Perez
Alone for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement as part of his 10.5-year prison sentence, Cordero Holmes could not see his future as a great dad, Honors College student, or recipient of the MLK Living the Dream Award for community service in his old neighborhood. In fact, he viewed solitary as a hallmark of his success.
From age 14 to age 20, Holmes spent his time on the streets, selling drugs and buying guns, cycling in and out of juvie, and striving to be the baddest character in his West Phoenix neighborhood. Now he was so bad they put him in maximum security lockdown. Looking back seven years later, Holmes says the Incarcerated Reentry Program (IRE) from Rio Salado College gave him a new life map.
Prison education in the rearview mirror
Prison education programs have long been in the crossfire of fierce clashes between those viewing prisons as proper punishment to promote a safe and just society and those seeing prisons as democracy’s hope for rehabilitation and restorative justice.
Early prison education programs were led by religious reformers like the Quakers who brought literacy and moral education to the Walnut Street Prison in post-revolutionary Philadelphia. College-in-prison programs flourished in the 1970’s and 1980’s after the 1965 Higher Education Act made people who were incarcerated eligible for Pell Grants. This trend reversed sharply with the passage of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which banned people in prisons from Pell access. Within a decade of the bill’s passage, in-prison college programs dwindled from over 700 to 12.
Since then, violent crime rates have fallen while prison numbers and costs have spiked. But so has justice consciousness, bolstered by data showing the interplay of education, economic mobility, and justice system involvement, with particular salience for communities of color, since more than a third of the people in prison are Black and almost one-fourth are Latinx.
Support for prison education was bolstered by the landmark 2013 RAND study, which found correctional education leads to a 43% drop in the likelihood of returning to prison and a 13% increase in finding a job upon release. The staunchest budget mind finds it hard to argue with taxpayer savings of more than $4 for every dollar invested in prison-based education.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education launched the “Second Chance Pell (SCP) Experiment.” Over seven years, 40,000 students participated in SCP programs in 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Educational and cost benefits, plus safer working and living conditions reported in prisons with SCP led Congress to restore Pell eligibility to people in prison as of July 2023.
Cordero Holmes’ windshield of life
Cordero Holmes says education in prison redirected him to focus on ending his family’s cycle of intergenerational poverty and incarceration while supporting his community. He explains that as a BIPOC man with generational roots as both African American and a Tohono O’odham tribal member, his time in isolation forced him to grapple with his life’s choices and reframe his concept of community. When he emerged from solitary confinement, he enrolled in Rio Salado College’s Incarcerated Reentry Program. He credits his English 091 class for giving him tools to translate his thoughts and experiences into meaningful expression and fill what he called an “information gap” in his life.
After his release, Holmes continued college with Rio Salado while navigating re-entry with a tenacity of purpose. He secured a job and gained full custody of two of his children. He completed two associate degrees and dual certifications in addiction and substance abuse disorders, while supporting his family.
Holmes regularly visits Durango Detention Center to connect with youth and advocates for the unhoused and food insecure. He participated in the 2022 PBS documentary “Being Free” by Roadtrip Nation, featuring system-impacted people showing how your past doesn’t have to determine your future. His mounting honors include multiple prestigious scholarships, serving as Commencement Speaker at his Rio graduation, and receiving the 37th Annual AZ Martin Luther King Jr. Living the Dream Award for his devotion to social justice and community service.
Holmes is on track to receive his bachelor’s degree in public service and public policy from Arizona State University. As a Barrett Honors student, he’ll defend his thesis, “Empowering Change: The Impact of Educational Interventions on Incarcerated Youth.”
What’s next? An MPA with a minor in criminology/criminal justice from ASU. Then, a Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice and continued advocacy for incarcerated persons and marginalized communities as a member of the state legislature. With an eye toward longevity, he also plans to teach criminology/criminal justice from, as he puts it, “the pedagogical lens of a directly impacted person.”
As to the advice Cordero would share with the five million people under supervision by the criminal justice system, he offered: “Don’t be dismayed, the past is the past and your future is full of beautiful possibilities. You’ll go through some tough things, but don’t lose faith — just keep driving toward your wildest dreams. You’ll accomplish more than you imagined.”
Dr. Stella Perez is CEO of Next Level Consulting, a contract firm focused on higher ed accreditation, state/federal compliance, and competency-based education.
The Roueche Center Forum is co-edited by Drs. John E. Roueche and Margaretta B. Mathis of the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership, Department of Educational Leadership, College of Education, Kansas State University.
