When faced with the task of wading through the many volunteer organizations present at Hopkins, one might find their feet to be a bit too deep in the mud to even begin to think of where to start. Fortunate as we are to have this problem rather than the alternative, the difficulty of the choice remains.
But one organization, the second oldest project of the Center for Social Concern, has left a definitive mark on both Hopkins students and their mentees and continues to do so with the passing years-The Jail Tutorial Project (JTP).
Founded in 1981, JTP aims to provide educational and other services to inmates of the Baltimore City Prison system through the participation of student volunteers from Hopkins.
Co-founder Bill Tiefenwerth, who was working with the University Chaplaincy at the time, is now the Director of the Center for Social Concern and remains passionate about the aims of the group.
"You had a population in Baltimore city that no one wanted to help . . . these are offenders who have come up against society to be punished and not helped, and we wanted to provide services that weren't being provided by other agencies," Teifenwerth said.
Teifenwerth said that a stigma exists in many people's minds toward prison inmates.
"We are still the only higher education volunteer program within the prison," Tiefenwerth said.
The Jail Tutorial Project houses seven divisions: the Male Juvenile program, the Women's Juvenile program, the Women's General Population program, the Men's Substance Abuse program, the Men's Mental Health program, the Female Mental Health program, and the Men's Computer Program.
Each program is voluntary on the part of the inmates, who apply to be a part of the program and then are chosen by Baltimore City Detention Center staff. 45 tutors, all Hopkins undergraduates, volunteer for the program and do so at least once a week.
Jail Tutorial President, junior Nathan McDonald, noted that although the goal of the tutoring is to provide academic support for the inmates, the benefits do not end there.
"We focus our tutoring efforts on both academic materials, such as GED preparation, as well as practical skills, such as checkbook balancing and computer proficiency," McDonald wrote in an email to The News-Letter. "But most importantly we strive to cultivate relationships between Johns Hopkins tutors and Baltimore inmates, an opportunity unique to our organization."
These relationships are not ones that the tutors take for granted. Oftentimes they believe that they have learned just as much from the inmates as they have taught them. Senior Ankita Saxena, head of the largest of the seven sections of JTP, the Women's General Population program, spoke specifically of one of her mentees who was aspiring to go to beauty school and who had written an essay about beginning to sell drugs at age 12.
"Learning about her situation in life and how it was different from mine helped me to appreciate my own life more," Saxena said.
Inmates have continued to inspire tutors across programs as they learn from each other. McDonald spoke of his favorite moment during his time in the program thus far.
"Personally, my favorite experience was when I tutored a 17 year old boy last year who loved to write songs and raps. I would give him new vocabulary words every week and then the next week he would have a song or rap that incorporated those words. The best moment was when another tutor and I sang backup vocals for him as he sang and rapped one of his songs that used words like 'superfluous', 'facetious', and 'ameliorate,'" McDonald wrote.
But developing a relationship with mentees can be a difficult task. Some are skeptical of the tutors when they come in, especially inmates who are new to the program. Junior Zachary Athing, head of the Men's Mental Health Program, noted that it is initially often a difficult issue to approach.
"If it's say a 40 year old [inmate], it comes off as 'I'm younger; I'm white; I'm better than you; I go to Hopkins and I'm going to help you and you're going to accept it.' So it's hard to maneuver around that," Athing said.
However, once the inmates get to know the students, Saxena stressed, a strong relationship is often formed.
"Once they find out that we're there because we want to be there, they really open up," Saxena added. "I've found that the inmates are really enthusiastic about learning because it is a voluntary program . . . They hate jail and see education as a way out."
Athing believes the inmates' initial judgment to be understandable, but that it allows for the opportunity for the volunteers to challenge the inmates' preconceptions of the students.
"Some of the most frequently asked questions are 'What are you doing? Why are you here? Are you getting paid? What are you getting out of this? Are you getting credits for this? Why are you doing this?' And the reasons for those questions is that no one has ever helped them before," he said.
"They could come from a broken home, have been a victim of abuse and are probably used to people taking advantage of them, so they really might not get it at first. I think you see their eyes open up too because at first they don't necessarily have the best view toward Hopkins."
Athing elaborated on the rough backgrounds of most, if not all, of those he works with. Coming from what he described as a "sheltered" area of Washington D.C., the inmates have given him a new perspective, changing the way he views incarceration.
"When you're talking to people you see that there's not a level playing field . . . who is to say if I was 16 years old and in Baltimore city that I would necessarily make the right decisions based on who was around me?" Athing said.
The most difficult part of gaining this new perspective, according to Athing, is that it has made it more and more difficult to see people in the prison who are of a similar age as himself.
He considers their incarceration mostly a result of their environment, whether it was being around drugs, in a poor home-life situation or otherwise. Athing considers himself lucky and not so different than those who are in the jail, and doesn't think that others should think of themselves differently either.
"[I want people to know] that the people in there are not animals. They're really not animals. They're not different than you . . . you're not better than them. Who is to say that if you were born to a broken home with ubiquitous drug use that you would have made it to Hopkins? Because I guarantee you, you wouldn't have . . . You're not better than them because they're incarcerated," Athing said.
For McDonald, gaining this new perspective is one of the most important aspects of the program.
"Jail Tutorial Project is far more than just tutoring; it is mutual tutor and inmate enrichment," McDonald wrote. "The organization does a great job of showing Hopkins students another side of Baltimore and then letting them jump-in and be a positive influence on that other side."
And this positive influence has been felt on both sides.
"I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone. . . I wanted to give back to the community that I was new to. I just kind of threw myself out there and was really unsure, but it's one of the best decisions I've made in my life," Athing said.
"Every time I leave the jail I don't just feel like I made a difference - I know I made a difference," Mcdonald wrote.
