Anson gains hope and a trade school

ANSON — In early November, Commissioners received an update from Cyril Prabhu on the progress of the 5 & 2 Trade School, a newly formed education home for young adults who have an incarcerated parent, where they can live and receive an education on the grounds of the school.

Prabhu’s idea of converting the former Anson County Correctional Center into a trade school has led many in the county, including commissioners, to follow him and his team through their journey.

“Like Five Guys [Burgers and Fries] you know, we have five trades that are going to be offered here. We want to help our kids, mainly you know, the kids that have a father or mother in prison. These are kids that haven’t done anything wrong. Kids, you know, just because of the way they are in life, they just don’t have a way to get themselves out of that situation,” said Prabhu, who got started in prison ministry by bringing children with incarcerated fathers into the prison to spend a day in fellowship with their dad. Prabhu says he believes it is important for families to rebuild their bonds because when a child has an incarcerated parent, the child’s chance of becoming incarcerated as an adult increases by 70 to 80%.

“In South Carolina, it went down from 26,000 inmates to 15,000 inmates. North Carolina, as a state, went down by 3,000 inmates,” says Prabu, of the recidivism rate among those involved in his prison ministry.

“The next thing we wanted to do was help them with their education, so we came up with the 5 & 2 Trade School. It’s inspired from five loaves and two fishes,” said Prabhu, referencing Matthew 14:13-21 in the Christian bible. “So we are telling our kids we will help you. Even if your life looks like barley bread, we will help get you through this.”

Prabhu says the 5 & 2 Trade School offers students an education in welding, automotive, digital arts, culinary and vertical farming trades.

“As a nation we have been building prisons and jails for years and years, that is why today 36 states have more prisons and jails than colleges, 16 states have more prison beds than college dorms beds, so that is why changing this prison into a trade school is more just a new school coming in. It is a statement that we are making,” says Prabhu, adding it is the first time in the nation’s history a trade school will rise from the rubble of an abandoned prison campus.

“It is happening in Anson County and this is so amazing to me,” said Prabhu.

He adds since last he came before commissioners the name of the road the school is on has changed from “Old Prison Camp Road,” to its new name “Break the Cycle Road.”

“We are not actually bringing these kids to study, we are bringing these kids to work. Day one when they come into the trade school they are actually joining a company called 5 & 2 Trade School. They are going to be given a salary for the time that they are going to spend there. The education for them is not free, there is an endowment of $23,900 that is going to be set aside for every student. Any amount they use from that they will repay back to the endowment so that the future kids that will be coming here will get that money to go to school,” says Prabhu.

He explained graduates will receive $10K-$15K in their bank account after paying back monies used from the education endowment to pay for their education at 5 & 2 Trade School. “Bank of America and Merril Lynch are working to set up all these things,” said Prabhu, listing just two of the school’s partners.

“January 15 is the first set of kids that are going to come into the school. In April we will have the vertical farm and hydroponic farm, as well as the digital arts studio and culinary program in place. By August we should have the auto shop with the help of the Nascar team. I had a chance to go to the school board and I am trying to find if there are high school students from Anson County that can be recruited for this. We still have time, we are in the drafting stage of recruitment right now, ” says Prabhu.