FREED BY LEARNING INMATES PROUD TO EARN DIPLOMAS.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Thirteen men in graduation gowns and caps walked up to a podium Friday to receive diplomas and shake hands with dignitaries -- but these weren't typical graduates.

These were men locked up behind electrified fences and barbed wire, some for life for crimes like murder, men who earned their high school equivalency diplomas -- and in one case, a college associate degree.

``For myself and for a lot of prisoners, the idea of advancing ourselves and doing better, that's something a lot of prisoners share,'' said Kenneth Hartman, 45, who dropped out of eighth grade and has been in prison for nearly 27 years, since a drunken, drugged-up beating that killed a homeless man in a Long Beach park.

From California State Prison-Los Angeles County's Honor Yard -- for inmates who've sworn off violence, gangs and drugs -- Hartman earned an associate degree from Coastline Community College.

Hartman studied by correspondence courses and watched classes on an Orange County public-television station. He'd like to go for his bachelor's degree, but says the fees and other expenses would cost him $10,000 to $15,000.

The dozen other men who earned their general equivancy diplomas passed the GED test in April, getting together in cellblock day rooms to help each other learn subjects like math, grammar, science and social studies, prison academic instructor Bert Fisher said.

``When I was young, I said I was going to graduate from high school and I was going to go on to college. I was going to go on to do the best I could with my life,'' said inmate Jimmie Gilmer, the class valedictorian. ``But sometimes things change in life and we all took detours to get here. I want to step closer to completing what I told my younger self I would.''

The 13-year-old prison holds some 4,500 inmates, more than twice what it was designed for -- though ever since its 1993 opening, it has had two men in each one-person cell. Now inmates also sleep in bunks set up in gymasiums and cellblock day rooms.

More than 150 inmates are taking academic classes, teachers said, and others take vocational classes in trades like plumbing and masonry. About 15 are taking college classes.

``The department is changing. We're kind of going away from the warehousing to the rehabiliation,'' acting Warden Robert Wong said.

Besides the 13 graduates from the Honor Yard, there were an additional 43 from a second prison yard earning high school diplomas and vocational certificates.

The Honor Yard graduation ceremony featured entertainment by inmate musicians, including a vocal quartet whose four members included former professional vocalist Eric Davis, who performed in Las Vegas and toured the U.S. with an opening act for the 1970s soul group The Delfonics.

``Eventually I ended up here,'' Davis said.

The Honor Yard, created in 2000, holds inmates who apply to be there. They must be without disciplinary problems for three to five years, agree to random drug tests and swear off gang activity.

Honor Yard inmate Cole Bienek plays guitar and bass in the band. Imprisoned since age 17, he said the Honor Yard saves the prison trouble and money and gives inmates practice in living in society when, or if, they get out. Many of them were sent to prison because they couldn't control anger, along with drugs, Bienek added.

He'd like to see the Honor Yard concept spread to other prisons, where he said about two-thirds of the inmates want to get through their sentences peaceably.

``There's a lot of us who've been down that side and now are here,'' Bienek said.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) Valedictorian Jimmie Gilmer, center, walks into Friday's graduation ceremony at California State Prison-Los Angeles County.

(2 -- color in AV edition only) Keyboardist John Terry and vocalists Darren Harris, Eric Davis and Cedric Cotton, from left, perform at the California State Prison-Los Angeles County graduation ceremony Friday.

Charles F. Bostwick/Daily News