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| Tenn. Inmates Learn the Value of Success |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/22/2003 |
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Until last week, Jordan Davis had never run 3.1 miles, much less completed a race. Now he's finished one in a place not usually associated with running free: the Middle Tennessee Correctional Complex. It hosted a 5-kilometer, half-marathon and full marathon Wednesday, open to inmates and outsiders alike. Jordan and older brother Johnathan finished the 5-kilometer race - nine laps around a ballfield lined by razor wire - in 25 minutes, 46 seconds. Jordan is serving 20 years for theft; Johnathan works at a skateboard park. "I was about to fall out, but I feel really good now. I never thought I could do anything like that," said Jordan Davis, 21. That feeling of achievement is the whole point of the race, said Winnie Binkley, recreation director for the prison, which organized the "Jaunt in the Joint." "Most of these guys have been told they can't succeed. They've never had positive reinforcement," Binkley said. "Last year there were three guys who said it was the first time they had ever started something and finished it." The race was first organized three years ago by inmate Craig Nunn, who was the only runner to complete the entire 26.2 miles. Last year, he wrote a letter inviting the Nashville Striders running club to participate. This year, 33 Striders provided timing clocks, Gatorade, T-shirts for participants and medals. A similar number of prisoners joined the "freeworlders," as inmates call non-inmates. Shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday, motivational music from a sound system boomed across the freshly mowed prison yard, still wet with dew as the runners lined up - some in running shorts and singlets, others in prison jeans and T-shirts imprinted with their inmate numbers. The runners - inmate and freeworlder alike - had race numbers pinned to their shirts. "We're all just runners, and those race numbers are the only numbers that matter," said Peter Pressman, a Strider who ran the half-marathon for the second consecutive year. "This was my first time on the other side of the fence. And the inmates have been incredibly friendly," said freeworlder Rick Miller. "I love it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat." Inmate David Harris said he plans to run it next year - even if he's paroled in December. "This is the highlight of our year, I mean it, the highlight of our year," he said. "You just have no idea what it means to spend time with regular people and to be accepted by them." |
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