For famed trial-lawyer-turned-convict Dickie Scruggs, the worst part of prison wasn’t the fear of violence or being isolated. It was feeling irrelevant, like “what I did didn’t matter to anyone.”

While serving six years in prison on attempted bribery charges, the man known as the Most Powerful Trial Lawyer found a purpose, a way to feel relevant again.

Scruggs, who spent time as a youth in Brookhaven, had been asked to tutor inmates in math, and eventually became an inmate instructor for the GED test, a position he held for four years.

“I started really enjoying doing it and seeing the reaction of these guys,” Scruggs told the Brookhaven Servitium Club Wednesday about tutoring in jail.  “A lot of them just want to be able to help their children.”

“I was shocked at how few had diplomas,” he said.

Scruggs estimated that half of the inmates were high school dropouts. He realized then that a key to bettering the lives of all Mississippians was better adult education efforts.

So Scruggs helped launch SecondChanceMS, a collaborative effort with the state’s community colleges to raise awareness and funding for those seeking a GED or skill certification.

In Mississippi some 500,000 adults do not have a high school diploma, with 14,000 students dropping out of high school each year. Scruggs said those statistics hurt both correctional numbers and economic development. Scruggs said those without diplomas are more likely to turn to illegal means of making a living, and therefore end up in jail.

It also hurts industry recruitment when the dropout rate is high.

“The Mississippi Economic Council and Mississippi Manufacturer’s Association both told me that the first question they ask is not what tax incentives do you have, but do you have an educated and trainable work force,” he said. “We’re eliminating ourselves right off the rip when approximately 30 percent of potential workers don’t have a high school diploma.”

Scruggs believes that by targeting dropouts they can make a dent in that economic development problem.

However, Scruggs is facing an uphill battle. In 2013, 15,000 people enrolled in GED programs across Mississippi. In 2014, just 3,500 enrolled. Scruggs said a portion of that is due to a doubling in the cost of the GED test, but he believes the real deterrent has been the increased difficulty of the test.

In 2014, pass rates dropped 90 percent over the previous year. The test now has a common core-oriented mindset, and the math section has added trigonometry and calculus.

“I think the numbers will bounce back a little,” he said, “but the core of the problem is the purpose of the test has changed.”

Scruggs said that there have always been two camps when it comes to the GED test. The first wants to help individuals qualify for jobs or maybe go to a community college or trade school. The second believes the GED should signify that a person is prepared for a four-year college. When the test was reformatted, the second camp won out.

Though GED promotions may help the state as a whole, at the end of the day Scruggs said it also makes a huge impact on individuals lives.

“At first it was not easy,” he said. “Most of the guys in the class were forced to be there. I tried to motivate them by convincing them that the GED showed they had accomplished something in prison. The GED … was a passport back to the mainstream.”

Scruggs hoped a GED would help inmates get a job upon release.

“I was able to convince enough of them to work hard and make it through,” he said. Scruggs said he helped about 60 pass the test.

Scruggs was upfront about his fear that his ex-con status would turn some away from the effort.

“I didn’t know if I could get off the ground with this GED thing,” he said. “I just didn’t know if people would say ‘he’s not the kind of person that … you want.'”

To hear a humbled Scruggs tell it, he enjoyed his new-found purpose in prison. But inmate instructor is a far cry from trial lawyer extraordinaire. At the height of his legal career, Scruggs reportedly brought in billions in attorney fees, most notably for his part in winning settlements from the tobacco industry.

The former Navy pilot now spends his time asking for money for his non-profit. According to the group’s website, its “goal is to ensure that Mississippi’s 15 community colleges have enough revenue to implement programs for the adult learner. 100 percent of funds raised will be used to enhance instruction, pay testing and skill certification costs and provide supplemental support. Giving a second chance, one step at a time.”

If you’re wondering why Scruggs would choose to take on adult education at this point in his life, you’re not alone. After all, it’s not as though he needs to draw a salary from the non-profit he helped start. It seems he is genuinely interested in helping others.

“We think we can make a bigger dent in the education problem by recovering dropouts,” he said. “Usually within a year, they can go back to class and get a GED.”

For more information on SecondChanceMS, visit www.secondchancems.com.

Time in prison

Scruggs shared some of his prison experience with the Brookhaven group Wednesday.

“The worst thing for me when I got to prison was that people thought I was a child molester,” he said. Not because of anything he did, but because he was an older, wealthy, white man — the typical demographic for an abuser.

“You have to really prove that you’re not in for a sexual offense,” he said.

He was shunned by other inmates during his first few days. Eventually, a fellow inmate in prison for murder told him: “You’re one of us, you’re OK,” he said. The inmate had read about Scruggs’s case in a national newspaper. His cellmate told him: “I am so glad you are a legitimate criminal” and not a child abuser.