TCTC Inmates give students view from the inside

By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CHAMPION -- "This ain't no joke," Steven Marks told the crowd of teenagers, all sitting in rapt attention, at the Trumbull Career and Technical Center.
Marks, who turned 40 on Sept. 6, talked to the students Wednesday about what he's accomplished in the past 25 years:
Earning an associate degree from Ashland University, where he's only 25 credits shy of getting his bachelor's degree in criminal justice; earning a theology degree; learning how to become a drug and alcohol counselor.
And he's done it all from behind bars.
Marks is serving 15 years to life in the Grafton Correctional Institution for aggravated murder and robbery.
He started serving time when he was 15 -- younger than most of the students he and fellow inmate Al Hardy spoke to as part of the school's Dope is for Dopes program.
About the program
The youth outreach program, coordinated by teacher Joe Harris and case manager Roger Vandersommen of the Grafton Correctional Institution, takes minimum security inmates to schools, churches, civic groups and even other prisons to give presentations about their choices, lives and how drugs and alcohol negatively influenced their lives.
Marks and Hardy have each participated in public presentations for more than a year and a half, trying to educate teens and young adults how their decisions affect the rest of their lives.
"Lying, stealing, cheating, robbing, killing," Marks said, looking intently into the crowd, making sure he got his point across. "It all became a profession for me."
Marks and Hardy -- who is also incarcerated in Grafton, having served 51/2 years of a seven-year term for arson -- told the students how their involvement with drugs and alcohol led them into lives of crime.
Drugs
Hardy, the father of six children, told stories of how drugs, specifically crack cocaine, became more important to him than his family. At one time, he said, he would take his children with him to go get high when he couldn't find a baby-sitter.
"In my mind, I was a good father, because I wasn't leaving them alone at home," he said. "But the fact is, I loved getting high more than I loved my own children."
Hardy said he ended up in prison after he broke into a former employer's office to steal money for drugs, cut himself in the process, and set the place on fire to conceal his breaking and entering. For the entire nine hours the building burned, he said, he was off getting high.
"I know some of you are saying there are a lot of people out there who get high and never go to jail," Hardy said. "But that doesn't mean their lives are perfect."
Opportunity
The men stressed to the students what an opportunity they have before them, with their education, friends and family. They also asked each teenager to consider the choices they make in life, both good and bad, and understand they all have consequences.
"Either consciously or unconsciously, you will be held accountable for every decision you make," Marks said. "It will not just affect you, but your friends, family and community. Know that."
slshaulis@vindy.com