‘I’m coming home’ stunned inmate tells mother of his surprise early release

About 100 inmates sat quietly Thursday morning in the gym of Burruss Correctional Training Center.

When asked who was ready to get out of prison, nearly all the hands went up.

Unbeknownst to them, one of them would be going home Friday.

James Mills, vice chairman of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, pointed out there is a difference in wanting to get out and being prepared to be back in society.

The men listened as Mills talked of their victims who bear the physical and emotional scars of crimes.

“You cannot change what happened,” he told them. “But you can change what happens right now.”

In a historic move, board members were there to see in person what is normally only spelled out on paper that passes through their hands.

“We don’t want to keep people forever,” board member Jacqueline Bunn told the inmates. “We want you to have an opportunity to be with your families, be with your children.”

The best way to get ready to leave is to stay ready, board member Braxton Cotton told them.

“I recognize in my life, I could be sitting right where you are, but it’s all about choices,” Cotton said. “You still have control. Each decision you make, starting from here, certainly has an effect.”

Those who behave, respect authority and take advantage of programs to better themselves can be released early, board members told them.

At least one of the prisoners in striped pants, sitting in the gymnasium, had a perfect record with no disciplinary actions.

“Want me to tell you the name?” Mills asked the men, some with big smiles on their faces, others with a somber realization they were not the one.

“Curtavious Keyon Gainey,” he announced as prison employees cheered.

Gainey, a 21-year-old Dublin man, stood and covered his face in disbelief.

“Is it a mistake?” Gainey thought after hearing his name.

As he approached the stage to pick up a copy of his parole papers, tears began to well in his eyes.

“Mr. Gainey, those are some of the manliest tears I’ve ever seen, and I don’t care what anybody says,” Mills told him.

Warden James Payne, who arranged the ceremony, told Gainey he was proud of him.

“There’s a lot of prisons in Georgia, guys, and this is not happening anywhere else,” Payne told the men. “I need this to spread. It’s not a rumor. It’s a fact. There’s a man from Burruss getting out.”

Charter school graduate

Gainey was 19 and on the verge of graduating from Dublin High School when he began a five-year sentence for a 2014 burglary in Wheeler County.

“I felt like my life was over, as far as a high school education,” he said.

Since he was 15, employers have turned down his job applications for lack of a diploma.

By studying behind bars, he graduated in June from the Foothills Charter School at Burruss. Gainey wears his class ring proudly.

Counselor Gloria Davis recognized his desire to graduate.

“He was determined. That was something he didn’t get to do on the outside,” Davis said. “He was willing to do everything he needed to do.”

Davis and Eugenia Harrison, deputy warden of care and treatment, almost seemed more excited about Gainey’s release than he was.

“We are so proud of this,” Harrison said. “It speaks volumes to the offenders as an incentive that if you do well, this is what happens.”

Chris Barnett, executive director of the board, said inmates have a right to earn their way out of prison.

The board is looking for those who take advantage of their opportunities to better themselves and become productive residents.

“We love you, but we don’t want to see you again,” Barnett told the inmates.

Most recently, Gainey was baking corn bread and cakes in the kitchen of the nearby Georgia Public Safety Training Center.

He also trained as a barber and is looking forward to going to community college to be licensed to cut hair.

“I’m just trying to stay focused,” Gainey said of his future, before another smiling prison staffer came to shake his hand. “I try to stay away from trouble.”

Inside Harrison’s office, he wanted to share the good news with his mother in Dublin, but he only got her voice mail.

“I’m coming home. I wanted you to know that,” he said into the phone.

He’s hungry for barbecued pig’s feet, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and homemade hoecakes.

But first, he will see his daughter, Chyanne, who was born while he was incarcerated. He’s only seen her once, a little more than a year ago when she was 3 months old.

“I can’t wait to see her,” he said.

Gainey wants to teach her to make wise choices and avoid mistakes he made by blaming others for his troubles.

“By sitting here and having time to lay down and think, I’ve actually found out a lot of things that happened are actually because of myself,” he said. “I just want to get out there and show the world I can do better.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 2:15 PM with the headline "‘I’m coming home’ stunned inmate tells mother of his surprise early release."