Inmates Receive Diplomas : Education: The six prisoners at the Oxnard rites are among the first graduates of a program to reduce recidivism.

After being kicked out of four Ventura County high schools in two years, Jaime Perez had written off the idea of becoming the first in his family to graduate from high school.

But it took an arrest and a 70-day jail sentence to force the 20-year-old Oxnard man to buckle down and finally earn a high school equivalency diploma.

On Thursday, Perez was one of six inmates who got an early taste of freedom when they attended a graduation ceremony for the Oxnard Adult School at the Radisson Suite Hotel in Oxnard. Along with the inmates, 34 people received their high school diplomas and 261 received their general equivalency diplomas.

“I accomplished something finally that I should have done years ago,” Perez said while posing for pictures with the other inmates in borrowed caps and gowns. “I feel really good.”

The six inmates, and six others already out of custody, were the first crop of graduates from a new program at the sheriff’s Honor Farm near Ojai. The program is aimed at providing inmates with skills, a degree and a new outlook on life, so once they are freed, they will not come back.

“We don’t promise them miracles, but we say here’s one tool you can work with,” said Dee Blankenship, a program coordinator with the Oxnard Union High School District which runs the classes for the inmates. “We tell them, ‘If you want to do it, you can do it.’ ”

Called Project Pride, the program combines classes on drug and alcohol abuse with computer training, farm work, exercise and study time. Those without a high school diploma are required to take classes toward a general equivalency diploma, said Lt. Bob Taylor, manager of the Honor Farm.

Thirty-three men are now involved in Project Pride, and 14 women participate in a similar program called Project Discovery. Throughout Ventura County’s jail system, 375 students are now enrolled in classes taught by the Oxnard district, and 55 are studying to take their GEDs.

Patricia Glidden, programs coordinator for the Sheriff’s Department, said the program was conceived at the Rose Valley Work Camp before budget cuts forced the facility to close last summer.

At Rose Valley, inmates could work toward their diplomas through an independent study program run by the Ventura Unified School District. And they could study for their GEDs, although the test itself was not administered in the jail system.

The Honor Farm has since picked up the program and expanded it to include women and classes on parenting.

Last December, the Oxnard Adult School received a permit from the state Department of Education to begin giving the GED exam at the Honor Farm. Since then, 17 inmates have taken the test and 12 have passed.

For Anthony Cortez, 30, of Oxnard, the toughest part was giving it a try.

Since he was 18, Cortez has been in jail six times on drug charges or charges he said stemmed from “trying to get drugs.” Although he had other opportunities to return to school, Cortez said he was never interested.

“At the time, I was so wrapped up in drugs, I didn’t really care,” he said.

But when he heard about Project Pride, he saw it as a way to finally kick his drug habit and learn skills that might keep him clean once he was out.

Cortez, who is scheduled to be released today, said he plans to use his GED to apply for mechanical jobs that he was once denied because he did not have a diploma.

None of the inmates at Thursday night’s graduation posed a risk of fleeing, Glidden said. “If we were worried, they wouldn’t be going,” she said.

Before collecting his diploma, Perez explained that he was motivated to finish his GED after his girlfriend, Naomi Cortez, gave birth to their son.

“That made a big old change in me. That’s when I really started to say, ‘I’m going to do it,’ ” Perez said.

“I had my doubts, but he finally did it,” said Cortez, who attended the graduation ceremonies. “This is the first step for him.”

After he is released from jail June 22, Perez plans to make a break from his past by moving to Bakersfield with his new family. He said he hopes to continue his education there.

“I want to better myself,” he said. “I want to get into a business trade--carpentry, dry walling or doing cement floors.”

Another inmate, Scott Mitchell, 25, of Torrance, said earning his GED means he won’t have to fib anymore on job applications.

“I always lied, checking the box that said high school diploma,” he said. “But now I can check it and really have it.”

After years of pleading with her son to return to school, Charlotte Russell, 47, of Torrance, had all but given up hope of seeing him don a cap and gown.

“It was a struggle,” she said. “I didn’t think they would go this far.”

Other inmates who graduated Thursday were Ramon Castillo, 22, of Santa Paula and Deshawn Johnson, 20, and Gumecindo Garcia, 50, both of Oxnard.