At this California prison, 'we are no longer prisoners. We are professionals'

Before the graduates strode in to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance," their prison blues peeking out from under their gowns, correctional officer John Janvrin encouraged them not to rush.

"Remember guys, you worked real hard for this. Real hard," Janvrin reminded the incarcerated men as they lined up in a back room, reread their notes, fixed their bow ties and adjusted the gold tassels bobbing from their mortarboards. The music began to play.

For more than a year and a half, these 20 men had been working for this: their graduation from training as alcohol and drug counselors. It was an accomplishment that could help them secure jobs both inside and outside the California prisons. It had also become a brotherhood they dubbed the Storming Cohort: Scarred Team of Recovering Men Inspiring New Generations.

Beyond the razor-wire and high fences of the state prison in Lancaster, in a visiting room strung with gold and black balloons and celebratory signs declaring, "On to the Next Chapter," the men walked in a procession before loved ones and state correctional officials to be recognized. Some said it was the first graduation they ever had.

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