Inmates wear several uniforms at Natrona County Detention Center.

Most men dress in orange shirts and pants; the women, dark blue. If an inmate is lucky enough to get cooking duty, he wears a green shirt that signifies the privileges that come with the job.

Each year, about 10 to 15 inmates wear black for one day. It's the color of the caps and gowns they are photographed in after passing the GED, the high-school equivalency test offered at the jail.

The black gowns signify more than completed math problems and grammar exercises. They symbolize a chance for something better, a chance for inmates to break free from the cycle of low-paying jobs and crime.

Debbie Bernard is one of the inmates striving to wear black. On this afternoon, she's hunched over a workbook inside a two-story jail multipurpose room. Plastic chairs are situated around four tables, and in the corner, there's a small law library. Up a flight of stairs are more books, the majority of which are romance novels.

Since dropping out of school when she had her first child, Bernard has spent the past 18 years working housekeeping and cleaning jobs. Now she's set her sights on earning her GED, which she sees as the key to a better life for herself and her four children.

"I'm 34 years old," she says, looking up from her work. "I'm a single mom and life isn't getting any easier."

Bernard, who's in jail for traffic violations, is one of the roughly 120 inmates each year who participate in GED and adult basic education classes at the jail. They're offered through Casper College and held three times each week. Inmates can join at any time, and those who are released or transferred before they're done can complete their work at the college or another institution.

Similar classes are also offered at the Casper Re-Entry Center, which houses work-release, drug court and drug treatment programs.

Not all student inmates have the GED in mind. Amber Baier has already taken two years of college, but is at today's class to brush up on her math.

"I like to do math," she says. "I just like to come and see what I don't know."

The work also breaks up the boredom of jail, where inmates are typically confined to their cells for 19 hours each day.

"It passes the time," Baier says. "It gives us something to do when we are locked down."

A cheerleader and teacher

Two women, Bev Dye and Connie Colman, teach the jail classes with the help of community volunteers. Dye, who's instructing this particular day's class, has been teaching at the jail for about five years.

There's an informal, easy-going relationship between Dye and the inmates, and she admits to being a cheerleader a much as an instructor.

"That's almost the biggest part of my job," she says.

Working with inmates might be disconcerting for some. Not Dye.

"Those folks are more respectful than many people on the streets," she says. "They are fun to work with."

There are no guards in the room, but Dye says she's never feared while at the jail, even teaching people who were later convicted of murder.

"We don't even ask what they've done," she says.

At a nearby table, inmates Octavia Bell and April Littell work quietly on math problems. Bell, 23, is in jail awaiting transfer to the women's prison in Lusk to serve a 32-month sentence for forgery. She already completed her GED, but continues to attend the classes, with the hope of attending cosmetology school when she gets out.

"It helps me to get into school and further my education, and not get into trouble and come back here," she says.

Bell decided to take the classes because she was the only person in her family who hadn't finished high school. Now she's become a teacher of sorts herself, tutoring Littell, her roommate in jail.

Littell, 19, dropped out of school in the 10th grade. She just didn't want to go anymore, she explained.

Her time in jail - she'll be in the detention center until March after getting coming here after having her probation revoked - changed her views on education.

"Now that I'm here, I figured it is a good time to do it," she says.

After the women leave, a group of male inmates come in for classes. One of them is 35-year-old Eric Jaramillo, who's studying fractions and decimals to complete his GED. He works in the kitchen six days a week, but in his free time, studies in his cell or the jail pod he's assigned to.

"It makes me feel good about myself," says Jaramillo, who's in jail for violating probation.

Jaramillo believes the education will also help him stay clear of further run-ins with the law.

"I figured I had to do this to better myself," he says.

A few seats away, 25-year-old Jeremiah Young is continuing his nine-month effort to get his GED. He hopes to attend college and find a steady career when he's released. In the meantime, Young has only one section of the test left.

"It's not easy, but I like to do it," he says. "I feel better about myself doing it."

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net.

To view a video of the Casper College tutors in action at the Casper Re-entry Center, please click here.