While different circumstances may have brought them together, the five people gathered inside the classroom at the Cass County Jail all shared a common accomplishment Tuesday: taking the first steps toward a better life.

The group of inmates — Dowagiac’s Reno Reyna and Raymond Fleming, Edwardsburg’s William Perrin and Kristina Knight, and Cassopolis’ Bryan Bailey — celebrated their graduation from the jail’s adult education program that morning. Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Cassopolis Public Schools congratulated the graduates on their success before they handed them their high school diplomas.

The five inmate learners comprise the largest single class of graduates from the program in recent memory, said Cass County Sheriff Richard Behnke. To celebrate, the students wore the time honored caps and gowns to the ceremony, and, after receiving their diplomas, turned their tassels and threw their caps into the air.

Cassopolis instructor Helene Hoover leads the jailhouse courses. The educator teaches the inmate students three days a week, leading the students through tests as well as assigning homework for the inmates to finish in their dorms, she said.

Hoover has taught at the jail for the past 16 years, though the partnership between Cassopolis schools and the sheriff’s office was established well before Hoover came on board, Behnke said.

The Cass County program is unique compared to most jailhouse adult education programs, in that instead of issuing GED degrees, the district awards students full fledged high school diplomas, the sheriff said.

“It’s a great partnership, one that I hope lasts into the future,” said Cassopolis Superintendent Tracy Hertsel, who will retire from the district at month’s end. “It gives people a second chance, an opportunity to get themselves on the right path.”

Behnke added that by earning their high school degrees, the graduates will have a much better chance of finding employment once they are released from custody. In fact, the county works with several area employers that help secure jobs for former inmates, Behnke said.

“[Graduation] is one of the best days of the year here, just like it is anywhere else,” Behnke said.

Naturally, spirits ran high among the graduating class Tuesday as well. Finally earning their degrees was no easy task for the inmates, who often worked several hours a day on course work in order to receive the credits they needed to finish up their schooling, they said.

“I just want to thank you,” Perrin said to the instructors Tuesday. “You broke things down to where I could understand them. I dropped out of school in 2004. It took this long for me to finally come back. This time I stuck with it, and she [Hoover] stood by me the entire time.”

Reyna also thanked Hoover and others in the adult education program for giving him the chance to earn his diploma. The 20-year-old said he wants to continue his education after his release— he is currently serving a year sentence at the jail — in hopes of becoming a diesel mechanic.

“I just look at this as a minor setback for a major comeback,” Reyna said.