Citation

Hallett M, Hays J, Johnson B, Jang SJ, Duwe G. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2015; 61(4): 445-463.

Affiliation

Minnesota Department of Corrections, St. Paul, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X15598179

PMID

26246368

Abstract

This article offers an ethnographic account of the "self-projects" of inmate graduates of Louisiana State Penitentiary's (aka "Angola's") unique prison seminary program. Angola's Inmate Minister program deploys seminary graduates in bivocational pastoral service roles throughout America's largest maximum-security prison. Drawing upon the unique history of Angola, inmates establish their own churches and serve in lay-ministry capacities in hospice, cellblock visitation, tier ministry, officiating inmate funerals, and through tithing with "care packages" for indigent prisoners. Four themes of positive criminology prominently emerge from inmate narratives: (a) the importance of respectful treatment of inmates by correctional administrations, (b) the value of building trusting relationships for prosocial modeling and improved self-perception, (c) repairing harm through intervention, and (d) spiritual practice as a blueprint for positive self-identity and social integration among prisoners.

Language: en