Last week, 54 Tainan Prison inmates received certificates for the completion of their junior and senior-high school education at the prison’s Shude Remedial School.
The school, established in 1984, allows inmates to study classes they abandoned in their childhoods while serving their sentences, the prison said.
To date, more than 1,500 individuals have completed their remedial education at the school, it said.
The access to education has also led many inmates to recognize the error of their ways, therefore putting many back on the right track, the prison said.
Among the certificate recipients was a 60-year-old inmate surnamed Lung (龍), who had worked as a truck driver before taking a job at a gravel quarry.
Lung said that he suffered greatly at the time due to the passing of his wife, whom he loved very much, and had come to know some “ill acquaintances” who introduced him to amphetamine.
Lung said he started selling narcotics to support his habit and was arrested during a sell. He was sentenced to 11 years and six months, and started serving time at Pingtung County Prison.
After seven years and cognizant of his lack in education due to his starting work after elementary school, Lung applied to study at Shude Remedial school and was accepted, prompting his relocation to Tainan.
Lung said he felt he had more difficulty than others due to his advanced age and dimming eyesight, but he was able to keep up by working harder than most.
Lung said that he shared his progress with his 90-year-old father as soon as he could, to prove that he was truly committed to changing his ways.
Despite wishing to continue his education, Lung is two years away from being able to apply for parole and has since been returned to Pingtung County Prison.
Lung hopes his experience serves as a warning to others and that no one follows his path, he said.
An inmate surnamed Huang (黃) was the youngest to receive his certificate at the ceremony on Wednesday last week.
Sentenced to 13 years in prison for manslaughter, Huang said the conviction stemmed from an incident at a KTV parlor.
He said he killed an individual from a neighboring KTV room in the establishment’s parking lot during a fight.
Huang said he regretted the act and knew he had wasted many valuable years of his youth.
Completing and receiving the certificate for his high-school education, Huang said he hoped to take up mechanical engineering in a university after his release so he could help his father manage the family’s iron factory.
Tainan Prison said the remedial school is quite popular among inmates and has received a constant stream of applications from other prisons.
The school on average accepts only 30 percent of all applicants, it said.
Many of the inmates who finished their course this term have expressed a wish to continue their education via the National Open University, the prison said.
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