Area Native Who Taught in Prison Was Never Afraid

(FROM LEFT, DORIS JENNINGS, DIANE CASEY, AND DAVID JENNINGS)

Jasper County native Diane Casey has retired after more than 30 years teaching in the Illinois Department of Corrections system, and said she never felt afraid.

Casey did her student teaching at Vandalia Correctional Center, but served as a teacher at Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro. She said she taught a variety of subjects, but also helped prepare inmates to take their GED exam.

As to why she chose teaching in a prison, Casey said she had the choice when starting her student teaching to go to Terre Haute or to go to Vandalia Correctional Center, which is near where her grandparents lived in Ramsey, so chose the prison.

It might seem discipline in a prison classroom might be tough, but Casey said it was "more like a group of junior high kids." She said, "If they got out of line, I'd send them out of the classroom."

As far as the most high-profile inmate she dealt with, Casey suggested Charles Fuller, the man who killed several members of a Mattoon-area family in the late 1960s. She said he works in the prison library at Graham.

Casey's stepfather, David Jennings, served as Rotary weekly program chairman. Her mother, Doris Jennings, was also present.