OSU, Catholic Charities team up to help inmates at Payne County get their high school degree

impact of educating inmates in the jail is the morale and self-esteem boat.

“The longer-term value comes as they are discharged to re-enter the community. From better employment opportunities to writing skills to having the ability to read and understand simple instructions, every part of life is so much richer with an education,” Lane said.

accomplish more in the class than what they thought they could,” Weinland said.

CCEOK, a CAS Community Engagement Grant and other generous donors have sponsored and helped the program continue. In March 2023, the Payne County Jail was officially established as a paper testing site for the HiSET test, which is administered by CCEOK.

Inmates at the Payne County Jail get a second chance.

Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences faculty and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma are working together to help Payne County Jail inmates get their high school diplomas.

In August 2022, OSU faculty started to teach courses to female inmates in language arts, math, science and social studies at the Payne County Jail through the High School Equivalency Test program.

This first-time opportunity helps students take the HiSET and ultimately earn the equivalent of a high school diploma.

Capt. Reese Lane, Payne County Jail administrator, said the short-term

At the outset, OSU teaching associate professors Kathryn Weinland and Melissa Mills partnered to coordinate and teach social studies and math courses. They were joined by fellow teaching associate professor Eric Howerton, who headed up language arts classes. After the first six weeks, students took practice tests to measure their progress and showed significant improvement.

Weinland said watching their students have more confidence in themselves has been gratifying. The professor said when they start classes, the students seem overwhelmed and unsure of themselves.

“And then they transform into these hard-working students who ask questions and do the homework and

“Some of our students had tears in their eyes when we told them that the jail was an approved testing site,” said Weinland, who serves as the HiSET program coordinator. “It really brought a new level of excitement and momentum for the women because they knew that they could have the chance to actually earn their diplomas while incarcerated.”

In May, Sister Catherine Martinez, CCEOK education site coordinator, traveled to the facility from Tulsa to administer the jail’s first test. She said this work is a way to be present to a population that is often underserved and ignored.

“Through our presence and our partnership with OSU, we are enabling women to have an opportunity for a better future for themselves. The tagline for Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma is ‘Love Changing Lives.’ Working with the individuals at Payne County Jail is a practical way to live out this tagline because there is no better way to express openness, acceptance and God’s love for another than to be present to them and assist them in creating a better future,” Martinez said.

The program expanded to include OSU faculty and graduate students from the departments of Psychology, Math, English, History, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Political Science. As courses begin this month, Weinland and the other volunteers keep the land-grant mission in mind.

“OSU’s land-grant mission says in part that we seek to enrich the lives of the people in Oklahoma, and improving the lives of our community members who are incarcerated with an opportunity for much needed education is a meaningful fulfillment of our mission,” Weinland said. “I firmly believe that empowering people who are incarcerated with education will directly benefit our community and our state.” news.ed@ocolly.com