CADDO PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator is speaking out against a program that would allow certain inmates to earn a bachelor’s degree while in prison and become elementary school teachers and mentors for at-risk youth once they’re released.
“We can do better than this for our young children,” Prator said Thursday of the Mister Coffee Bean program through the Be a Coffee Bean Foundation that seeks “currently incarcerated, Black men, with non-violent, non-aggravated, low-level offenses, with the aptitude to test into college, who also do not have a lot of time left on their sentences.” Selected inmates are moved into a single prison to earn their bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and be mentored in a Living Learning Community.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections is hosting the program and asking wardens all over the state to recommend inmates for the program. But Sheriff Prator says he won’t be submitting any names from the Caddo Parish Correctional Center.
“If a felon can’t even possess a firearm, you can’t trust them to have a firearm because they’ve shown a history of violating the law, then I don’t think we should be trusting them to teach our elementary or other students,” Prator said.
While Prator says he is a strong proponent of rehabilitation and second chances, he was concerned enough to send an email to Caddo Parish School Board members and Superintendent Dr. Lamar Goree Thursday morning with details of the program and the state’s request for inmate recommendations.
“In a nutshell, the Department of Corrections (DOC) has asked me to identify inmates for an ongoing program entitled “Mister Coffee Bean,” Prator said in his message to school district leaders. “This program will educate a select number of currently incarcerated felony inmates. These inmates, upon graduation, will then be certified and placed into elementary schools as certified teachers. The program has already begun.
I have strong concerns about this program and the hiring of convicted felons to teach our children. I will NOT be identifying any felons to take part in this program. Please call if you have any questions.”
“Caddo Schools works throughout the year in collaboration with colleges and universities as well as proven alternative certification programs to train and develop new teachers for our district’s classrooms,” Caddo Parish Public Schools said in a statement late Thursday afternoon.
“Those collaborative relationships have taken years to cultivate and have allowed our district to better align the work taking place in teacher preparation programs with the high-quality teaching every child in every classroom needs. Our focus remains on building these existing partnerships as well as growing our internal certification program to continue to support our schools.”
