Des Moines Register: Holly Harris: Gov. Reynolds delivers speech of a lifetime--in prison
I recently attended a graduation ceremony. In many ways, it looked just like any other graduation: hopeful graduates in their caps and gowns, proud family members in the audience, the presentation of diplomas, and a keynote speech meant to inspire the graduates to future accomplishments.
But this was no ordinary graduation. It took place in a prison. And the keynote speaker was Gov. Kim Reynolds.
I met then-Lt. Gov. Reynolds last year to introduce her to our policy work on safely reducing prison populations and expanding re-entry programming so people leaving prison can find jobs. Reynolds urged us to visit an apprenticeship program with her that teaches incarcerated women valuable job skills. Several months later, we took her up on her offer. Only this time, she was Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The women’s prison in Mitchellville is probably the opposite of what you would expect. Aside from the barbed-wire fence and secure doors, you might never know you were in a prison. The facility is extremely clean. And while the women we met there are serving anywhere from two years to life, they live and work together in what seems to be a positive and supportive community. They grow their own vegetables. They care for animals. But it is the apprenticeship program in the textile plant that blew my mind.
Approximately 50 women work in this plant, where they manufacture everything from lab coats to furniture. It’s a well-oiled operation modeled after Toyota. There are charts tracking health and safety, quality, delivery, cost and personnel. An accountability white board details hours, shifts and compares goals to production. This facility generates more than $3 million per year, and services all agencies in state government. You may find blue scrubs with the Mitchellville label at higher learning institutions, or prison-manufactured furniture in the governor’s office.
Any employer would be impressed with the skill and discipline of these workers. It should be a piece of cake for them to find manufacturing jobs when they leave prison, given the dearth of skilled labor out there. But the stigma of incarceration is still very real. And because of their criminal records, many of these women will never even get past the application phase in a hiring process. But by championing this program, and really just by spending time in a prison, Gov. Reynolds is working to change that.
The day we visited the Mitchellville apprenticeship program happened to be the same day dozens of women were receiving their high school equivalency diplomas. And Gov. Reynolds was set to be the first governor in the state’s history to speak at a graduation ceremony in a prison.
During her remarks, the governor urged the graduates not to let their time in prison define them, and to use their education to make better decisions when they return to society. At one point, though, she seemed to veer off script. The governor turned to look the women in the eyes, and told them of her own struggles. She spoke of overcoming an addiction to alcohol, of finally earning her degree at the age of 57, all while raising three children. Her story was not so different from many of theirs.
And yet here she stood, the first woman governor of Iowa.
The message was clear: If she could do it, so could they. You could feel the hope emanating from the graduates. You could see the pride shining in the faces of their parents, and hear the excitement in the squeals of their children.
I’ve worked in politics my whole life, and I’ve watched countless politicians give hundreds of speeches. I’ve even written some of them. On the way home, I started thinking about the rare person who can give a speech that changes a life. Certainly Billy Graham did it, and Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. On Sept. 28, 2017, I watched Kim Reynolds change the lives of the graduating class at the Iowa Women’s Correctional Institution.
I’ll never forget it. And neither will they.