Photo by Tom Jenz
Shar-Ron Buie
Shar-Ron Buie
Approximately one in eight Black men in Wisconsin are currently incarcerated. For Milwaukee’s inner-city community, over 50% of Black men are likely to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. Most incarcerated individuals are eventually released back into their original neighborhoods, but too many have no job skills or education to fall back on.
Enter the Marquette University Education Preparedness Program (EPP), which provides higher education classes free of charge to people impacted by incarceration. The EPP Program offers tuition-free college courses at the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center (formerly the House of Correction), the Racine Correctional Institution and on the Marquette campus. The Director of EPP, Dr. Theresa Tobin, told me, “Last year, we taught six classes—two in history, and one each in English, social welfare & justice, eeducation and criminology & law studies. This year, there will be 12 classes—one each in English, philosophy, psychology, social welfare and justice, sociology, and a business class. Also, two classes each in history, education, criminology and law studies. Our on-campus classes are open to legal-system-impacted people including those who were formerly incarcerated.”
She suggested I talk to the EPP Associate Director Shar-Ron Buie, who had once been incarcerated and also worked inside the Wisconsin prison system. We met at a restaurant on the West Side. With extensive knowledge on the prison culture, Shar-Ron seemed eager to talk about EPP. Over the course of our conversation, I got the impression that if you needed a person to handle stressful situations, Shar-Ron should lead the challenge.
From what I understand, you’ve had a grueling background, the stuff movies are made about. Please tell me your story.
I have a multi-varied beginning. I never lived in the same city for consecutive years until I was about 15. I come from a challenging family structure. My mother was 15 when she got pregnant with me in Natchez Mississippi. In that community, if a girl got pregnant that young, the family up and moved to save face.
My family moved to Madison, Wisconsin where I was born in 1967. My grandmother took custody of me and became my guardian. I was raised to believe my grandmother was my biological mother, that my aunts and uncles were my brothers and sisters, and my biological brothers and sisters were my nieces and nephews. I called my real grandmother, “Mama,” while my real mother was my sister. Over time, “Mama” moved us all over the place, Kentucky, Nashville, Michigan, Madison and back again. We were poor, and she’d take us wherever there was the best opportunity. Everybody in my family kept the lie going that “Mama” was my mom. Finally, when I was around 13, I found out the truth about my real mother, but the lie still went on. That year, I was sent back and forth from Nashville to Madison four times.
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What was it like for you, having to go to so many different schools and make friends, find stability?
Well, I was somewhat intelligent and also small for my age. I skipped two grades. So when I was in Nashville at 14, I was in the 10th grade, and the older guys would sometimes beat me up. I never got the chance to establish long term friendships. When I was 16, I was going to Madison East High School, and I refused to go back to Nashville because my uncle and “Mama” had been physically and verbally abusing me there. I still have the scars all over my body. (Shar-Ron showed me some of his scars.)
At 16, I moved out of the family house and struck out on my own in Madison. For a while, I lived on the streets or at friends’ homes. But I got a job at Oscar Mayer for $11 an hour, then got my own apartment. I’ve been on my own ever since. In 1986 when I had just turned 19, I joined the Marines and spent four years in the service. Throughout that time, I was married and had some issues with my wife. So I left the Marines, and we came back to Madison, and that is when I got in trouble. I was arrested for homicide.
This unfortunate tragedy had to be an enormous turning point in your life.
Absolutely. I spent the next 25 years in various prisons in Wisconsin. I earned 63 diplomas and degrees including a bachelor’s degree and a paralegal license. I founded the American Legion Post 1998. I was a Veteran’s Service representative. I won several claims for fellow inmates. On the downside, I was denied parole 19 times.
When you got out of prison, you earned a master’s degree from UW-Platteville.
Yes, in criminal justice. It took me 14 months, and I am presently working on my doctorate in criminal justice.
You are Associate Director of the Educational Preparedness Program at Marquette University (EPP). This program helps the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and legal-system-impacted folks, who take college classes for credit. Describe the EPP program and how it works, and how did you get involved?
In prison, I was a tutor, helping inmates earn their high school diplomas and also take college classes. In my research, I discovered the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant, the WHEG grant. It pays the tuition and fees for qualified inmates for two college classes, the books, and $65 extra. I wrote a program based on my experiences helping those students. As a result, the prison in Red Granite adopted my program.
When I got out, I was living in Madison. I started working as a Certified Prison Peer Support specialist for the Veterans Transitional Housing Program, Porchlight, on behalf of marginalized, disenfranchised veterans. I was also working for JustDane as a health navigator, giving marginalized communities information about Covid.
Along the way, I found out about the Marquette EPP program. When I was interviewed by the EPP Steering Committee, I showed them some of the items and ideas I developed for my educational program for the incarcerated and marginalized students. I ended up advising them on some potential best practices to implement in the EPP program. They hired me, and here I am today, an Associate Director of EPP.
In the EPP program, you have co-learner classes where traditional students blend with prisoners and ex-prisoners. Are these co-learner classes taught on the Marquette campus or in the jails?
Let’s change the language to legal-system-impacted. This includes those people who are incarcerated, been released from incarceration, or those people who never went to jail but whose parents or children did. For example, we have a mother, sister, and two daughters all in the same class, and only one of those people had spent time in jail. In some of our EPP classes, there are also degree-seeking Marquette students who mix with the prisoner students.
The purpose is to change paradigms on how we see each other, the prisoners alongside the citizens who have never been to prison. It is human nature to have preconceived notions about social and cultural issues. I like to think of this approach as creating a class dynamic where you have to be uncomfortable. That is how real learning takes place. If you are around someone who thinks and talks like you do, you are not learning much.
I’ve been covering the inner-city Black life for a several years, and I’ve tried to talk about racism with both whites and Blacks. I actually encourage people to be “uncomfortable,” talk to people whose skin and culture are different than theirs. That uncomfortable approach might help overcome this terrible racism issue.
You are 100% right to suggest that. I hate that many people are assumed to be racist. Any form of disagreement, we get angry, and don’t allow an individual to speak. It’s like George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Look, I went to prison, and things happened to me that were not fair. But I did commit the criminal act that put me behind bars. Prison is supposed to be uncomfortable because it helps people understand not to engage in antisocial behavior that will send them back to prison.
EPP classes are in the liberal arts, history, philosophy and so on. But EPP is also connected to grassroots organizations that help ex-prisoners get training in practical fields like the trades—electrician, plumber, carpenter, and also computer coding. If EPP classes are only in liberal arts, how will this help ex-prisoners get practical jobs?
That is where my job comes in. I connect with community organizations that provide resources to get training in the trades. Or with organizations who might assist a student in paying for housing. But the EPP goal is to eventually help legal-system-impacted people on their way to college degrees.
If I am a formerly incarcerated prisoner, or I am incarcerated now, or I was impacted by the legal system, how do I enroll in a class? And do I have to pay tuition?
Right away, we let you know that everything is free. Currently, we offer classes in two different facilities—Racine Correction and the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center. At Racine, the education directors post fliers on every unit. If you sign up, you are vetted by the education staff. I go to the Milwaukee facility and visit every unit, and I pitch the EPP program to incarcerated occupants who are interested. I do interviews and administer a test to see if you qualify. If accepted, you get up to 12 credits free if you pass your classes.
How many students are enrolled in the EPP program? I believe there are 12 total classes, right?
Yes. We have approximately 240-250 students enrolled in 12 classes in the EPP program.
Professor Rob Smith told me he will be teaching a class in African American history to a group of men and women jail guards.
This is a whole new paradigm. We are taking jail guards and putting them in a class with degree-seeking Marquette students. The class will be taught inside the correction facility and also on the Marquette campus.
Do you teach any courses?
Last summer, I wrote and taught a college success class on campus. It was about how to be a successful Marquette student, even the simple things like how to write an email and fill out forms. Currently, I am working on a doctorate degree in criminal justice. My dissertation is focused on military veterans who are in prison and how they can get the benefits that had been reduced when they became prisoners.
On a broader subject, I too often see well-meaning nonprofits and government programs treating people they are helping as “victims.” I’m not sure identifying as a victim will benefit a person in the long run.
Our Black communities will never change as long as they treat themselves as victims. If you keep treating people like victims, then they identify as victims and have no responsibility to change their behavior. If you are a victim, you cannot heal.
In January, 2021, a research team led by Dr. Robert Smith, Harry G. John Professor of History and the director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching, and Outreach (CURTO) at Marquette University, received an award of $745,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the Education Preparedness Program (EPP).
