Learning life skills in Deer Lodge, Montana

Chad Matt-feldt’s tattooed forearm contrasts with his stark white homework assignment recently.

With a mouse click, Matthew Hoffman proudly revealed his daughter’s college savings plan.

“If I put $200 a month into an 8.5 percent ING, in 14 years I’ll have $72,000,” said Hoffman, 27, sounding like any forward- thinking father as he explained an Excel spreadsheet.

But the standard-issue blue pullover and the razor wire around his living quarters separate him from other concerned dads.

Hoffman is an inmate at Montana State Prison serving a sentence for a drug conviction in Great Falls. He is also a student in the prison’s Life Skills class, which offers computer, job interview and communication training.

By Erin Nicholes, of The Montana Standard

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2007/09/19/deerlodge/hjjcjaidjijfgd.txt