COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Behind the gate at the Camille Graham Correctional Institution is a place where you probably don't want to see your daughter.

The prison is the intake facility for women in the state prison system.

Inmate Kia is nearly half way through a four year prison sentence.

"Our warden and assistant warden do a lot of things to reach out and try to help us," Kia said.

She was in college at the time of her crime, and she's an exception to the rule -- 63% of inmates in South Carolina prisons don't have a high school degree or GED.

Kia works in the prison's library.

"It keeps us all on the even keel by giving us outlets especially good outlets," Kia said.

One outlet is the correctional facility's school.

Many inmates spend anywhere from three to six hours a day in the classroom in writing, computer, math and office skills courses.

Educational Coordinator Geraldine Abraham loves to watch the inmates learn.

"When I see a student learn, the light bulb goes off, it makes it all worthwhile," Abraham said.

Each year, close to 30 women at the Graham center get their GEDs and another 150 or so get vocational completion certificates.

Welding instructor Tim McDonald recently came from a private welding shop, to the whole new world of corrections.

"It really tickles you, they'll pick it up and make a pretty weld and say, 'Wow, Mr. McDonald, I really can do this!' and I say, 'Yeah, it's really not that difficult,'" McDonald said.

The welding shop is probably fancier than most private welding places, they have a lot of the best equipment you can find here, and one more important thing we should point out about the operation -- in more than 20 years of doing this, it has had zero major accidents.

So whether it's welding or reading, the women have a choice for a place they wish they probably didn't end up.

Still, inmate Kia says the structure and educational opportunities has helped her and many others.

"I found myself here, I learned how to work with others better by being here," Kia said.

The state hopes by having nearly half of its entire 24,000 inmate population enrolled in some form of educational or vocational training, the next choice an inmate makes is to find a job, and not a prison cell again.

Source: wistv.com