“I was in the room—the office of the prison newspaper, The Only Voice, to be specific, when Dr. Julie Doochin came to Turney Center to discuss the Higher Education in Prison program she was bringing from the old Charles Bass Correctional Complex.”
For Mike Stanfield, this moment with THEI’s founder marked the beginning of his academic journey that would transform his life and exemplify the power and liberation provided by education.
From the outset, Mike knew he would seize any educational opportunity presented to him, even despite his initial uncertainty about whether lifers would be offered the chance to participate. He attended every prep class anyway and took them in stride through moments of doubt.
“There was never any question in my mind of whether or not I would take college classes, if offered,” Mike says. “Of course I would. It was a given.”
Mike’s commitment to his studies was driven by more than personal ambition. He felt a deep sense of responsibility to those who believed in him and to future students who might follow in his footsteps. In 2017, he earned his associate degree in business administration from Nashville State Community College, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. His dedication was recognized with two academic honors from NSCC: a Business Administration Achievement Award and an Award for Excellence in English. He was also selected by his professors to receive the class Academic Achievement Award, a THEI honor given to students demonstrating academic integrity and a passion for learning.
“I never set out to be an honors student. I merely worked hard—like most of my peers—and I took it seriously.”
Maintaining his 4.0 became a significant motivation. He achieved an A, and then another, and then a string of A’s unspooled in the defining thread of his academic success.
While academia provided Stanfield with structure and goals, it was literature that truly ignited his passion for learning. Long before he enrolled in college, Stanfield had been a writer, spending two decades editing The Only Voice.
In 2013, he won third place and $50 in the PEN America’s annual prison writing contest. His college education further honed his writing skills, enabling him to articulate his experiences and reflections with greater clarity and depth. In 2022, Stanfield won Second Place and $750 in a writing contest sponsored by the University of Southern California’s Prison Education Project for his “educational biography” he wrote in a class with his professor, Dr. Jayme M. Yeo, who encouraged him to submit the essay. A year later, THEI staff motivated Mike and his fellow students to enter the Future without Fracture competition sponsored by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, where he earned $500 and another second place achievement.
Stanfield's writing journey is intertwined with his academic pursuits, each reinforcing and enriching the other. "Another nutritional benefit of devouring great books is it makes me want to write them," Mike says. His literary north stars—Camus, Dostoevsky, Salinger, and others—provided both solace and inspiration, revealing to him the shared human experience and motivating him to express his own.
"The most liberating moment in my educational development occurred within the unyielding confines of a maximum-security jail cell," Mike says. "After making the worst mistake of my life, I was given opportunities to grow, improve, and make better choices."
One of the first things Mike learned in college was that he liked to learn. This was a significant revelation, considering his high school years, where he had been a class clown, a class-skipper, and eventually a school dropout. "My academic failure undoubtedly had multiple contributors, but primary among those was simple boredom," he notes. In college, however, he discovered that lectures, reading, and class discussions could be quite interesting. He was fascinated by political satire, social contract theories, and ethical approaches to personal duty. Formal education, Mike discovered, could be challenging but also rewarding for its own sake.
“Through the eclectic mixture of introductory-level science, language arts and humanities classes, I have been given a mental snapshot of the world, a thumbnail of reality’s big picture; and that has made me a fuller, more connected person.”
Mike’s academic journey with THEI culminated in an associate degree from Nashville State Community College, and he is now on the path to earning a bachelor’s degree from Belmont University. Despite the challenges of balancing academic commitments with the realities of life post-release, he remains dedicated to his studies and to maintaining the high standards he set for himself.
Looking ahead, Stanfield is slated to graduate next summer alongside his Turney Center cohort. He anticipates the grand ceremony at Belmont University but is even more eager for the humble prison ceremony, where he will walk in cap and gown with his fellow students.
"We started this long, arduous, enlightening, empowering, awakening journey together, and that’s how I want to complete it: together."
While transitioning from prison to life post-release, Mike has been supported by THEI's Transitional Programs team. Shon Holman-Wheatley, Director of Transitional Programs, emphasizes the importance of maintaining a connection with alumni.
"Mike's reentry progress is phenomenal,” Shon says. “His journey and story exemplify our goal of helping students achieve true autonomy and success in their post-release experience."
Mike received monthly check-ins from TP staff and regular phone calls. These calls serve multiple purposes: our staff offers a friendly “hello” and checks in with our alumni, but they also play a crucial role in supporting alumni progress, not by leading them, but by maintaining a connection and offering support when needed. Importantly, these calls are designed to be relational rather than transactional.
Recently, Mike has secured housing in a new apartment, marking an important milestone in his post-release life. The THEI team is incredibly excited to build community with him and continue offering support as he embarks on his next journey.
