Instructor helps provide ‘second chance’ to student inmates at local facility
WHITEVILLE, Tenn. — President Joe Biden has marked the month of April as Second Chance Month, and one Whiteville Correctional Facility instructor is giving students just that: a second chance.
Photo Courtesy: Whiteville Correctional Facility
“I have a course called Job Savvy, where I teach them the life skills they need to be successful,” said Katherline Maclin, Career Management Success Instructor. “There are certain skills that are very important. Like coming to work on time, work ethic, motivation, those are the skills that I teach them.”
Maclin started in early childhood education, but once she began volunteering at a correctional facility in Memphis, she realized that ultimately she wanted to work in prisons.
Photo Courtesy: Whiteville Correctional Facility
“I hold them to a higher standard when they’re in my classroom, and they do well when they leave, so I’m very happy to see the success in the students because I want them to do well once they leave prison,” Maclin said.
Every day, students read a positive quote in the beginning of class, along with reading a few pages from a book — all in effort to let them know, that as long as they have a positive attitude, they can go far.
Photo Courtesy: Whiteville Correctional Facility
“Because there is so much negativity that they have learned in the past, then they have to see another path, another way, to be effective as they’re moving forward,” said Maclin. “So if you change your attitude, you can change your life, because attitude is everything. A positive attitude is everything.”
Maclin has taught 500 student-inmates throughout her career, and only ten of those students returned to prison.
Photo Courtesy: Whiteville Correctional Facility
“They are human beings just like us and they want us to show that we care about them, and they do deserve a second chance once they get out, so jobs and opportunities should be available to them because they have served their time and we don’t want them to come back,” said Maclin.
Maclin says although the students have made some mistakes, her goal is to help every student be successful in the future.
Maclin says graduation for the students will take place at the end of May.
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