Prison inmates learn Braille

By MEGHAN DURBAK
Tribune staff writer

June 30, 2008 11:28 pm

— PERU — It’s a small blue typewriter with six keys and an irregularly-shaped space bar. Each key combination processes a series of raised dots only a small population of Americans can decipher.
To men like Michael Royce, the typewriter symbolizes hope and a second chance in life. To more than 100 blind children in Indiana, it’s an educational opportunity.
“When you look at it, all you see is dots on a paper,” Royce said, indicating a thick book of Braille, a text for the blind. Royce is one of nearly 20 men in the Miami Correctional Facility working for The Miami Braille Project.
The new project consists of inmates translating textbooks for grades kindergarten through 12 and other educational materials to Braille. The program provides these materials to the Indiana Department of Education at a relatively low cost while giving inmates job skills they can take with them upon release.
The new venture is a collaboration of the Indiana Department of Correction, PEN (Prison Enterprises Network), Department of Education, Center for Exceptional Learners and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
“It’s something I can do when I walk out of here,” Royce said.
Royce, 38, has been looking forward to his freedom for more than 20 years. He still has 12 more years before he obtains his freedom.
At 18, he was convicted of rape. “I live with that every day of my life,” he said.
While he’ll never deny the horror of his crime nor forget the angry young man he once was, he longs for a chance to start over.
“I can’t undo what I did. But now I have the opportunity to do something positive and good for other people .... try to balance out my life,” he said.
In prison he can use his talents to help a sight impaired child become educated.
“This is what this kid sees as he’s running his finger on top of it and he’s learning the English language while doing it,” Royce mused as he indicated the second-grade sentences he was turning into Braille.
J. David Donahue, commissioner of the Department of Correction, has seen how inmate work programs such as PEN have helped ex-convicts become acclimated into society. The program teaches inmates job skills and work ethics. Approximately 400 out of 3,100 prisoners in the Miami facility are working through PEN.
“Not only can (former inmates) take care of themselves but they can give something back,” Donahue said.
Robert Eutz, a contractor for the state school of the blind, sees how beneficial this program is for the Education Department. Eutz said one in five children don’t have their books on time because the work is often done out of state and is extremely expensive.
“The savings will be astronomical,” he said.
According to Jim Durst, superintendent of the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 741 children in the state that are legally blind and 162 require Braille. For each printed page, three to four pages of Braille are made. A Braille company may charge $2 to $10 a page. Inmate labor savings is substantial.
While inmates receive low pay, the Braille project has numerous applicants because of the potential it offers them currently and when they’re released.
“It gives me a sense of purpose,” said Curtis Nimmie, 43, a convicted sex offender, who has 10 years before his sentence is complete.
While many inmates and most Braille transcribers will be working on regular texts, Nimmie hopes to transcribe music. Before his incarceration, Nimmie was in a circus band.
“It always made me happy,” he said. He was shocked blind students could read music.
Knowing he can share his love of music with another person has given Nimmie something to look forward too every day. He works for the Braille project seven hours a day, five days a week.
Like Royce, Nimmie sees this singular craft as a way to achieve some form of normalcy when he’s released.
“Being a sex offender makes it hard to get a job on the street now. I can do it from my house. ... I don’t have to worry about interacting with the community much,” he said.
This job also allows him to be working in an understanding environment. There’s less emphasis on convictions and more concentration on the tasks at hand. That respect and acceptance helps him tolerate prison life. Another goal of the project is to keep inmates from falling into old patterns and returning to prison. That’s a fate Nimmie plans to avoid, especially with the help of a career upon release.
“If I ever get out there’s no way I’m ever coming back,” Nimmie said.

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