Learning the Hard Way - Ex-Con Earns Two Degrees

The future's so bright, Alex Matheson can put his shady past behind him.

On May 23, the twice-convicted felon paroled after spending a couple of years in prison will join about 700 others in a cap-and-gown procession at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He'll leave with degrees in English and philosophy, as well as a second chance at life.

Matheson, 26, was assigned to Colorado's Youthful Offender System but left, resulting in a felony escape conviction. After that, it didn't take long for him to get busted for second-degree burglary, a case that landed him in the Crowley County Correctional facility.

It was bad, but not all bad.

"Once I got sober in prison, I figured out I wasn't being the person I am," he recalled. "My drinking and using drugs was getting in the way of my thinking."

Matheson started reading.

"I was primarily reading Buddhist philosophy in prison," he said, explaining that through a library lending program he could get the books he needed. Now he leans toward French existentialists "from the 1940s up through today."

When he became a full-time student in early 2005, he was newly released from six months in the Community Corrections program. He wore an ankle monitor, but he thinks few noticed.

Gazette