Rios-Mojica first started the high school program when he was at the Draper prison. Getting an education here, though, he added, has “given me an opportunity to be a better person.” He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
He was arrested in 2020 and pleaded guilty to harming a child.
When he came to the United States, he didn’t speak English. He didn’t finish school beyond junior high. Rios-Mojica grew up in Mexico, where he said his family moved around often. “Maybe you don’t understand why I have this feeling,” he said. At 56, he was the oldest of the class to graduate Monday. Graduate Jose Rios-Mojica teared up as he gave his speech, calling the celebration a “día especial” - or “special day” in his native Spanish - one he never thought he’d have an opportunity to see. The inmates were also nervous, tapping their sneakers on the cement floors before their name was called and they collected their diploma from the program here called South Park Academy. A few parents cried when their student crossed the makeshift stage in the prison visitor center. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Soon-to-be graduates wear robes over their inmate uniforms as they listen to fellow graduates commencement speech as the Utah Department of Corrections and Salt Lake City School District host the inaugural high school graduation ceremony at the Utah State Correctional Facility on Monday, June 5, 2023.įamily members filled the blue plastic chairs for a chance to congratulate their loved ones on the accomplishment some of the graduates had been incarcerated since high school.
Video visits utah state prison full#
The long-awaited day was full of pomp and circumstance and hope for second chances.Ī sign in the back, made by the inmates who work in the prison’s printing department, read: “Congratulations graduates!” Officers paced the aisles, mostly as a precaution, as they also helped the students fix tassels that had flipped the wrong way over caps. The past three years, too, the Utah Department of Corrections didn’t hold in-person commemorations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, Ortiz was among 38 inmates - her classmates - who celebrated getting their high school diplomas in the first ceremony at the prison in Salt Lake City since it moved to this western wetland area last year from the dilapidated Draper facility. She said she plans to use her new degree to help her kids with their homework. Ortiz, 30, is set to be released next month. She adjusted her commencement robes to cover her Corrections-issued jumpsuit and imagined the day soon when she won’t see those fences outside anymore.
0 kommentar(er)
