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A mother and son, both serving time for assaulting people with knives, received high school diplomas on Wednesday during a graduation ceremony at the Utah State Prison.
Genevieve Billie, 52, and her son, Zechariah Curley, 26, are behind bars for committing the same crime — aggravated assault — but on separate occasions.
"I want to make it to the point when we don't have to say, 'See you later,' in handcuffs," the mother told The Tribune.
Curley said that being incarcerated together has allowed he and his mother to support each other.
"I'm happy to graduate with my mother," Curley said. "I'm glad that we can help each other."
The two were among about 150 inmates who attended the ceremony held in the prison gymnasium. A total of 241 actually graduated this spring from the prison's South Park Academy, but some inmates had been paroled, others had been moved to county jails and security levels for others did not allow them to attend.
The women inmates were dressed in yellow-colored caps and gowns that covered their burgundy prison-issue uniforms stamped with bold black letters that read UDC Inmate (Utah Department of Corrections).
The men wore blue-colored caps and gowns over white UDC uniforms.
Student speaker Clint McMurtrey, 39, who dropped out of high school at age 15 after being abandoned by his adoptive father and left to fend for himself, expressed the importance of education.
"Education is the cornerstone of living a better and a productive life," McMurtrey told the crowd. "Let's use this small victory of a stepping stone to succeed."
McMurtrey, the class Valedictorian, scored a 24 on his ACT test, which is in the top 25 percent of scores nationally. He also received a $1,000 scholarship to the University of Utah to use when he leaves prison.
His dream is to obtain an electrical apprenticeship so he can support himself while pursuing a degree in social work.
Rampant drug abuse, chronic poverty, street life and poor decision-making were some of the pitfalls that landed the graduates in prison.
Aileen Trujillo told her fellow inmates that she should have graduated from high school in 2007, but an unexpected pregnancy and drug usage got in the way.
"I remember feeling like a failure," said Trujillo, who also graduated from a drug-treatment program offered at the prison.
Nathaniel Ganier, 31, a Student of the Year who also spoke during the ceremony, said: "I made mistakes. I made some bad choices in my life."
South Park Academy principal Todd Bird told the graduates to keep their expectations high.
"Change is what people do when they have no options left," Bird said. "Act on life. Don't sit back and wait for life to act on you."
South Park Academy, which is part of the Canyons School District, is an accredited high school that serves incarcerated adults. The program is funded by the Utah State Legislature, Utah Central Academy and county jails. The Utah State Office of Education provides funds to Corrections through state and federal grants under the Workforce Innovation and Occupations Act, according to its website.
Canyons School District Superintendent James Briscoe told the graduates, "You just took a key to freedom, freedom to the world, freedom to sit down and express yourself, freedom to understanding the world."
Briscoe added: "I measure success by the obstacles you overcome."
South Park Academy teacher Moxa Mitton played "Pomp and Circumstance" on the piano as the graduates one by one had walked through a line of presenters and received their diplomas.
Family members shouted praise. Others cried tears of joy.
After the ceremony, surrounded by his mother and father, Michael David Johnson, 32, said he has served 14 months in prison and is looking forward to getting out.
"I'm ready to go forward with my life," inmate Johnson said. "I will get a job and take care of my two boys."
Tina Ambriz, mother of graduate Fernando Francisco Lopez, has been raising her son's children while he has been in and out of prison.
Ambriz said she finally become exasperated with his chronic criminality and had stopped coming to see him at the facility.
But she was there on Wednesday to see him graduate.
"I'm trying to do my best when he has done everything wrong," Ambriz said. "I stopped coming to see him, but I still love him."
Lopez, 32, said he was selling drugs and doing other criminal behaviors, but he has learned from his past mistakes.
"I do have a chance to be successful and a productive member of the community," Lopez said.
Prison Capt. Ron Wilson said that the inmates are humans who made some poor decisions.
"They're not animals," Wilson said. "They have hopes and aspirations like everyone else."
Wilson is well-liked among the inmates for his hard-nosed yet compassionate.
Inmate David Anthony Ricks gave Wilson a hug and a kiss on the cheek after the ceremony ended.
"I've been in and out of jail for the past 20 years," Ricks said. "He's tough as hell, but he loves the inmates."
Wilson said Ricks was hired as a clerk on his unit and has done a "good job" in his position.
"He's on the right track," Wilson said.
Ricks, 42, who is serving up to life in prison for convictions for aggravated robbery and several other felonies, has a parole hearing in 2028, according to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
After the graduation ceremony, the inmates had a brief social with their friends and family members before returning to the current reality of their prison cells.