The calculus textbook you are currently studying may have been compiled by a felon.
You may also want to thank a prison inmate the next time you find a classroom by using a college campus map.
Those are some of the many services rendered as part of Folsom Prison’s “Project for the Visually Impaired,” according to Officer Bob Schmitz. California’s Folsom Prison project, in conjunction with the California Departments of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Education, as well as the Lion’s Club, also produces Braille maps and closed-captioning text for films that are used at various community colleges.
The project also produces computer programs specially designed to “speak” to the visually impaired.
Folsom’s project serves 109 California community colleges, as well as many California state government agencies and schools.
The services are rendered at no cost to the agencies, schools and colleges, although the institutions must pay for paper and equipment used by the inmates.
Folsom’s project has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for the institutions, Schmitz said. In fact, Folsom’s project has “saved millions of dollars over several years” for many institutions, he said.
Folsom’s project employs a “very proactive approach to meeting the needs of schools and colleges,” Schmitz said.
The production rate, according to Schmitz, is often “way ahead, before any need arises.”
Currently, 18 inmates participate in the project, Schmitz said. Inmates considered for the program submit to a battery of tests for reading, writing and math skills, as well as punctuation, proofreading and typing skills. Those who work in the program commonly render 14 hours a day of work on the project.
“Most of my inmates (in the program) are extremely bright, some have photographic memories and some have some college education,” Schmitz said.
Many of the project’s participating inmates are certified in textbook formatting for literary Braille, math and science, and Braille music.
“There are only 18 certified Braille music transcribers working in the U.S.,” Schmitz said. “There are two at Folsom.”
Schmitz, a graduate of Long Beach Community College, stated that he was always “very impressed” by California’s community college system, and that he traveled from the Midwest to California to go to community college because of the lack of community colleges in his area at the time.