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by Bart Becker
The average UNL student probably has
spent the last couple of years exercising
some basic freedoms. He's probably been
able to say pretty much what he wanted,
been able to go where he wanted, with
whomever he pleased, whenever he chose.
Most students have spent the last
couple years going on dates or fixing their
cars or getting drunk for Saturday
football games. In short, they've led
average lives.
No so for five students currently
walking the UNL campus. The five are
convicts who attend classes as
participants in a prisoner rehabilitation
program. The program, called the
Prisoner Educational Release Program
(PERP), is an innovative step in prisoner
rehabilitation.
Of course, programs designed to get
prisoners outside the walls have been the
trend in recent years. Work-release
programs have grown and the Nebraska
Penal Complex has operated its program
for about a year.
The work-release program began Oct
1, 1971. Under it, prisoners who meet
certain qualifications live in a halfway
house near the University campus. They
go to work, daily returning to the
halfway house in the evenings. There are