Inmates get decision-making help 

Vita seeks volunteers for Bucks prison class and public literacy. 

By Frank Devlin     The Morning Call    January 24, 2003

At the close of her final session with a Bucks County Prison inmate named Matt, Bonnie Waitl marks the occasion with a life-affirming message.

''Give yourself a new birth today. Celebrate you, OK?'' the 69-year-old woman says to the tall, goateed and heavily tattooed man seated a few feet from her. Matt says OK. He seems to be taking Waitl's words to heart. When she says goodbye, the 32-year-old drug offender from Levittown says, ''Thank you Bonnie, I appreciate it.''
Waitl and Matt's meeting was the culmination of another Personal Decision Making course at the prison. The course, taken by about 200 inmates a year, is run by a Doylestown nonprofit called Vita Education Services. Vita began offering the course in 1971 and also runs volunteer literacy programs outside the prison.

Matt and most other inmates sign up on their own for the decision making course, Vita volunteer coordinator Donna Quimby said, but a few are ordered to take it. It takes eight to 12 weeks, depending on how quickly the material is covered.

The idea is to have them think situations through before acting. Waitl's meeting with Matt on a recent Friday morning was, for Matt, a bit like a self-help book in lecture format. 
Waitl had him answer some very basic questions. When she asked what was important to him, he said his wife and children. When she asked what he needed to do to stay out of trouble once he gets out of prison, he said he had to avoid certain friends.

It sounds simple enough, Quimby said, but the process of clearing one's mind and consciously setting down priorities and goals, verbally and in writing, ''is very powerful.''

Matt said the course has taught him ''to stop and look at the situation. Before, I wasn't looking into the future, what would happen if I got high.'' ''I'm trying to make decisions so I'll be a better parent,'' he said. He said he never got high in front of his children, who are 10 and 8, but they have seen the effects drugs have had on his behavior.

Waitl said that in a way she is helping children since Matt and other inmates are parents, she said. If they manage to stay out of prison and they learn to make better decisions, they'll be better parents.

''It's the ripple effect,'' Quimby said. ''You throw that little pebble in and the ripples continue out. It affects the whole community when people start making better choices in their lives.''

Vita Education Services is seeking volunteers for its Personal Decision Making course at the prison. Training starts March 5. For more information, call Vita at 215-345-8322. The organization also runs volunteer literacy programs for the general population.