The Angola Prison Seminary: Effects of Faith-Based Ministry on Identity Transformation, Desistance, and Rehabilitation

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Drawing upon three years of on-site research, this session utilizes survey responses from over 2,200 inmates and over 100 life-history interviews of inmates and staff to explore the history, purpose, and functioning of the Christian seminary program at Louisiana State Penitentiary (a.k.a. "Angola"). Drawing upon the unique history of Angola, inmates lead their own congregations, serve in lay-ministry capacities in hospice, cell block visitation, and delivery of familial death notifications to fellow inmates, offer “sidewalk counseling” and tier ministry, officiate inmate funerals, and tithe with “care packages” delivered to indigent prisoners. Upon graduation from seminary, inmates become practitioners in the “Angola Church” deployed through Angola's unique Inmate Minister program, serving in bi-vocational pastoral service roles throughout America’s largest maximum-security prison.

Sub Unit

• Area VII: Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 38: Corrections

Individual Presentations

• Reinventing Corrections: Faith, Identity Transformation, and “Relationship Theology” at Angola - Michael Hallett, University of North Florida

• Faith, Church Attendance, and Service: Pathway to Transformation and Freedom - Byron Johnson, Baylor University

• Ecumenism, Interfaith Cooperation, and Inmate Ministry: Religious Pluralism at Louisiana State Penitentiary - Joshua Hays, Baylor University

• The Social and Historical Context of Angola’s Bible College - Grant Duwe, Minnesota Department of Corrections

Chair

• Sung Joon Jang, Baylor University

Discussant

• Shadd Maruna, Rutgers University