"A lot of public school advocates believe that the charter schools are taking away the students from wealthier families, are creaming off the better students, and as a result it is diminishing the effectiveness of the public school movement," Hennessey said. "I'm certainly not taking the better advantaged students. I'm taking the ones who flunked out. I'm reinvigorating the students that the public school system has finished with."

While charter high schools typically serve students until they are 18 or 19 years old, Gordon Bernell's director, Greta Roskom, said New Mexico law has no age limits for students.

"That's a common misperception," Roskom said. "There is no upper age limit. Anyone in the state of New Mexico who doesn't have a diploma regardless of age can be enrolled as a public school student."

Aragon said he dropped out of high school when he was a teenager because insomnia made him sleep late and miss morning classes.

He ended up in jail for fighting, he said, but found in jail that he likes learning.

In a recent language arts class, teacher Kimberlee Hanson asked about a dozen students to write rap lyrics based on their life experience.

"I just love literature," Aragon said when he had finished the assignment. "You can express yourself. You can make someone cry if you can express something well enough. You can make them smile or cry and be happy. You can bring sorrow. You can bring joy. You can do anything with literature, that's what I love about it."

The classes are fast-paced and allow students to earn high school credit as quickly as they can master each New Mexico curriculum standard. But they must score 80 percent or better to get credit.

Hanson wrapped up the class with a head-spinning list of upcoming tasks.

"Tomorrow we're typing stories. Write your stories. Your literary analysis is sticking with you. Monday's our final that ends this unit and then it's off to superheroes for persuasive essays," she told her students.

In addition to a basic high school curriculum, both charter schools teach their inmate-students life skills designed to help them be better citizens.

Psychologist Ron Gallegos works with them on how to make better choices by teaching them about morality.

In one assignment, the students had to document 10 hours of doing things for other people while not expecting anything in return, which is the antithesis of prison society, Gallegos said.

Gallegos said the school itself helps inmates see a way — other than criminal activity — that they can succeed.

"I think they are stunned to discover that they have some ability to be successful in the academic world. You see a pretty overwhelming sense of joy and pride in them when they accomplish writing an essay or solving a math problem or getting a science project," he said.