'Softer side of incarceration.' Women's prison warden hopes grad ceremony is inspiration

A jazz band played as women in blue caps and gowns walked down the chapel aisle. All the work they put in to further their educations culminated in this moment: Graduation Day.

The ceremony may have been similar to other commencements, but the women weren't typical college graduates. They earned their degrees behind the locked doors of the Indiana Women's Prison.

Warden LaShelle Brown said the ceremony Monday showed the "warm, softer side of incarceration," which is not typically presented. Brown added she hopes the uplifting event motivates other women at the prison to work on personal improvement through education.

"I always tell them they may be locked up inside of the facility but their mind is not locked up," Brown said. "So they're allowed to free their mind and move forth in developing their education."

Marian and Notre Dame partnership

The graduation marked a milestone for the prison's inaugural class of the Women's College Partnership, a collaboration between Marian University and the University of Notre Dame. The partnership is a member of the Consortium for Liberal Arts in Prison by the Bard Prison Initiative, and launched in January of 2019.

The new graduates included 14 incarcerated or formerly incarcerated students who earned bachelor's or associate's degrees from Marian with some earning two degrees. A statement from the prison said 45 women at IWP will attend credit-bearing courses towards their associate's and bachelor's degrees in the 2023-24 school year.

"This is a distinct privilege for me today," Marian president Daniel J. Elsener told the graduates, "because I admire you."

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Elsener said he attends many graduations, but in some ways, he's most proud of the celebration at IWP. Elsener also thanked the faculty who helped with this program.

The school's mission, based on the Catholic-Christian faith, leads it to help the person "on the outside looking in, and give them a chance," Elsener said. Education, he explained, transforms people and gives them confidence about what the world offers them and what they can offer the world.

That's how it was for Sharon Collins, a graduate who said education elevated her status and boosted her self esteem "to levels that I could never imagine." Collins, who was released in 2020, said the university license plate on her car and being on campus after her release made her feel part of the Marian University family.

Collins said the program changed her life. She has established a nonprofit called Caring About the True You and now extends a hand up to others, as she felt people did for her in the program.

The importance of education is a message she wants to share with other girls and women she encounters. "So she can know that just like I feel today — like the most beautiful girl and the most accomplished girl in the world," Collins said. "She can too."

However, Collins stressed, it took a group effort to get to this moment. People in the program studied together, prayed together and lifted each other up, she said.

The speaker for the graduation was Tiffanie Agee, a lawyer and interim dean at Miles Law School in Birmingham, Alabama. When others asked why she was going to prison for a graduation, Agee said she had an easy answer: "Because it's an honor and I can."

The comment gained applause by the audience of graduates, women in the program, and attendees.

Agee called the commencement day a "pivot point" — a precise moment in time — for the women to decide how their identity shifts. She urged the graduates to be present "today and everyday," and be comfortable with their story, even their failures and embarrassments.

Most of the time, Agee said, she doesn't leave prisons or jails with hope and joy. Yet on Monday, she said she was filled with both.

"You are impacting lives of people you don't know and you always will," Agee said.

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Honoring one grad lost to cancer

Among the graduates, there was one person missing: Lisa Van Morrison, who died of cancer prior to commencement. Her family walked across the stage and accepted her diploma, prompting one of several standing ovations during the ceremony.

Another ovation followed a tribute to Morrison that included a speech emulating slam poetry, singing and lyrical dancing. The women who performed the dance were Rheann Kelly and Michelle Williams, two of the new graduates.

Williams' mother, Debra Martin, said she was very proud of her daughter and all she's accomplished. The dance, as well as her daughter's speech at graduation, meant a lot to Martin.

"Everything was so beautiful, it made me cry," Martin said. "She's come through all this ... (God has) made her a wonderful person."

Williams graduated with an associate's degree and will be receiving her bachelor's degree around December.

"I'm the type of person that every time I watch a graduation ceremony on TV, I get really emotional because I realize that that's like a rite of passage and it's something that you always want to experience," Williams said. "Since I didn't get to experience it as a child, I feel ultra blessed to be experiencing it at 46 years old and to be experiencing it among such amazing people in the community."

Kelly graduated with an associate's and a bachelor's degree. She said she was grateful for the opportunity and those who helped her be able to get the degrees. Kelly added she would like to see a master's degree program established at the prison and wants to continue her education. Currently, she's a tutor for other incarcerated women going through the college program.

She particularly loved Agee's speech, detailing what Kelly referred to as "the internal and the external."

"Everybody can see that somebody has achieved a degree but it's finding those ways to express that internal change that we've been able to experience ... something that gives us a new identity and a new purpose and self esteem," Kelly said.

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Educational opportunities at the prison

Kelly's mother, Donna Pace, said she "can't even describe how proud" she is of her daughter. She also would like to see more public awareness of educational opportunities at the prison, which is "supposed to be a place to help (incarcerated people) grow."

"They are beautiful people, my daughter as well as the other women, and these opportunities just touch my heart, they mean so much," Pace said.

Other educational opportunities at the Indiana Women's Prison include: the Inside Out Prison Exchange with IUPUI, which allows a class from IUPUI and incarcerated women to share ideas on a given college course subject; tutoring; and literacy education programs in reading, math and language arts.

At the culmination of the ceremony Monday, the incarcerated women and attendees gathered for a meal on a lower level of the chapel before the realities of prison life came back into focus. As most of the new graduates returned to their living quarters, the guests walked out of the locked doors.

Contact Pulliam Fellow Elissa Maudlin at EMaudlin@gannett.com or on Twitter @ejmaudlin.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Notre Dame, Marian partnership helps Indiana inmates graduate college