By Wayne D'Orio, The Hechinger Report, July 12, 2019.
LOS ANGELES — The first time someone in jail tried to give Bradley Arrowood a textbook, he laughed at him. Education was the last thing on his mind. “When I was a kid, I was told I’d never amount to anything,” Arrowood said.
Arrowood grew up in Orange County, dropped out of school at 16, and supported himself with “illegal activities” until he was 23 years old, when he killed a man he suspected of cheating with his wife. He was sentenced to life without parole in 1995, and said he “deserved every bit of my sentence.”
But Arrowood ended up taking the book and joining the prison’s ad hoc study group, in which members purchased college textbooks and taught themselves various subjects. He worked toward his GED and a paralegal certificate, then earned two associate degrees via correspondence courses from Coastline Community College. He eventually received a commutation of his sentence, because he had “turned away from violence and drugs and instead dedicated himself to rehabilitation and education.”
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