It took one man 18 years and a hunger strike to get his ged while Locked up in Illinois Prisons – ryan

Juan Hernandez was a teenager when he was sentenced to prison. He was 32 when he finally completed his HIG School Education.

The Nearly Two Decades in BetWeen Tell A Story of Bureucratic Barries, Arbitrary Rules, and One Man’s Refusal to give up earning his education.

IT’S not Unusual for People Locked Up in the Illinois Department of Corrections to Wait Years to Get Into Programming, Such as Ged or College Classes. That’s especialy true for People serving long sentiment for serial Crimes, as the state prioritizes enrollment for People who will be releassed from Prison Sooner. Hernandez was Senttenced to 45 years as a Teenager.

But what Makes Hernandez’s Story Unique is the Paper Trail he kept throughout his fight – the Letters he wrote to prison officers ascing for access to Education, and the Response and Received. The Documents, Which He Asced A Friend to post on Instagramofffer a rare into the offen-paquaque process of prison Waitlists that kep thusands of incarcerated People from Accessing Education Inside.

“I realized Education Might be a Way forward when the administration was adamant in keeping it from,” Hernandez WROTE to WBEZ from dixon correctional center, where he’s Currently Locked up. At one prison, Juan wrote that he was assured to a Cell House with 1,000 Other men – all of the whom were barred from Education Simply Because of Where they Lived.

Officials Called the Policy Only to Allow Certain Units Access to Classes “an Administrative Decision” with no stirate explanation. Be he filed a formal prison Complaint with idoc – known as a grievance – a prison officer found his Complaint “Moot.”

When letters and grievances failed to get Him Access to Education, Hernandez escalated to a hunger strike – one of the DRASTIC STEPS Some incarcerated People Turn to wen other avenuers are ejausted. That ended with prison staff attempting to force-feed hym, he wrote. He was eventually transferred to a different prison, where the education administrator Told HIM HIS TEST HELPED HIS CASE – But His Release Date Not.

The Administrator Also Warned Him: “Will not go to seg!” – Shorthand for administrative segregation, otherwise known as “The Hole,” which is Similar to solitary confinement as workshut for people in prison who get into Trouble. Months late, Hernandez was finally enrolled in ged classes and, true to a promise he made in one of his letters, after the test on his first attempt.

Its been Seven Years SINCE THEN. Hernandez is Still Waiting to Get into College.

In a Statement, An Illinois Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Said Increas Educational Staffing SINCE 2018 Has Allowed More People in Complete the Ged Program, and That Wait Have “Decreas Significantly.” The average was time to get into ged classes is mess than three months, she said.

Listen to the full story AboveWhere Hernandez Tells His Story in His Own Words, Read by Actor Jomar Lopez, with the Chicago-Based Mud Theater ProjectWho formerly incarcerated Alongside Him. The Complete Collection of Documents from Hernandez’s Fight Can Be Viewed (here). You can Also See More of Hernandez’s Art on HIS website.

Hernandez’s Story, in His Own Words

Charlotte West is a Reporter Covering the Intersection of Higher Education and Criminal Justice for Open Campusa nonprofit Newsroom Focused on Higher Education. Sign Up for Her Newsletter, College Inside.