by Paula Novash

Devon Brown, M.P.A. ’84, calls education “the torch of enlightenment.” This belief clearly infuses every area of his life, as he’s earned two master’s degrees and a law degree and has completed the requirements for two Ph.D.s. And in his role as director of the Department of Corrections for the District of Columbia, he emphasizes education as the foundation that increases offenders’ potential to lead productive lives upon release.

“We have a captive audience, so we try to instill in them approaches necessary for their success when they return to the community,” Brown explains. During his 35-year career in the correctional field, these initiatives have included inmates watching educational television and participating in chess tournaments with Ivy League schools. Brown also launched a nationally acclaimed anti-crime campaign, the “Be Smart—Choose Freedom” program, aimed at discouraging those at risk from becoming criminal offenders.

This year, along with support from Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty and the city’s government, Brown has shepherded into existence the Employee Readiness Center for inmates. Located in the Central Detention Facility, the center provides job-readiness training and services such as interviewing and resume preparation workshops, career counseling and personal computer classes.

“These individuals have stumbled, but they haven’t fallen,” he says. “We want to make sure they are helped to acquire the skills they need to gain employment and the discipline and strength to keep it.”

Another new initiative, a partnership with the D.C. library system, links computers at local libraries to those in the detention center so prisoners can video-visit with and read to their children. Brown is delighted that the kids “are connecting to dads and moms and visiting their libraries at the same time.”

He acknowledges the challenges of his vocation, pointing out that the United States incarcerates more of its citizens than does any other country in the world—“a No. 1 status we wish we didn’t have,” he says.

“But we have opportunities to impact many lives, put people on a better course, change public policy,” Brown continues. “What’s encouraging and motivational to me—and this happens all the time—is to meet someone I knew as an offender and see that he is now doing well.”