Volume 7, No. 10
October 2015
Business Kelso Longview
Connection Chamber of Commerce
Educating businesses on taking chances By Brenda Sexton For the Kelso Longview Chamber “I did not dream about going to prison as a child. I wanted to be a teacher,” Gina McConnell-Otten said. For 11 years, McConnell-Otten called a correctional facility home, but today as she finishes up a temporary position with Goodwill Work Opportunity Center of Cowlitz County, she can describe her job as a support specialist for Student Services with the Post-Prison Education Program as teaching. “With support and education there is nothing we can’t do,” said McConnellOtten, with the “we” standing for those currently incarcerated, but inspired and driven to create a different life when released. She volunteers with the Post-Prison Education Program (PPEP) – giving back to the program that gave her so much. The Seattle-based nonprofit’s goal is to
Gina McConnellOtten uses her education and work experience after release from prison to return to help those still incarcerated. reduce recidivism through education and support, two things McConnell-Otten needed when she decided to move her life forward after her 2011 release from the correctional facility. Inspired by a PPEP visit, while still behind bars, she buckled down and earned her high school diploma. She began a work release program in Seattle and earned a scholarship to attend a Seattle community college. The scholarship came from a woman whose brother had been incarcerated. McConnell-Otten was its first recipient. “I knew I was street smart,” McConnellOtten said. “But I didn’t think I was book smart. “I was uncomfortable and worried about stepping foot on a college campus. I thought everyone would see the big F on my forehead, the big F for felon. But no one saw it.” Her comfort zone continued to be tested. She was selected to be one of several fel-
ons teamed with University of Washington honor students for a quarter. What, she wondered – what would a privileged bunch of kids have in common with someone with a 13-page, front and back, rap sheet? The two diverse groups discovered common ground, and the project proved successful and eye opening. “The PPEP program literally built me up and loved me where I was at,” she said. “They’ve been there through it all for me, thick and thin.” So have the words of a judge who called her a waste of air, menace to society, and said she would amount to no good. As did the words from a friend she left behind in prison who told her, “I want you to not come back here. I want you to be my voice.” McConnell-Otten took those words to heart. Despite the “smell of lack of hope” that permeates through prisons, she re-
Please see Chances, page 2