Nearly fourteen years ago, Dr. David Draper, then President of Winebrenner Seminary, and Dr. Linda Draper launched a ministry outreach of Winebrenner Theological Seminary to bring the Pastoral Training Institute (PTI) to one of Ohio’s prisons. Marion Correctional Institution became an experiment in carceral learning. Nine students in the first cohort spent four years learning to minister in their context: the adult male prison, a Level 2 mid-range security environment in the general population for inmates who have a low risk of engaging in prison violence. The inmate/students (a.k.a. “IP” for Incarcerated Persons) engaged in 12 courses of study, patterned closely on Winebrenner’s PTI model for training pastors who could not or chose not to attend seminary.
Several of the students who completed this program were able to pursue ministry credentials in partnership with the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the Churches of God, General Conference. You can read more about this collaboration by clicking here.
During COVID, Marion was, for a time, the largest hotspot for COVID-19 cases in the United States, with 80% (2,026) of the inmate population and a large percentage of the administrative and correctional staff (162) contracting COVID. The nine men who went through the first cohort were called upon to serve as unofficial chaplains for the overpopulated institution, praying with fellow prisoners and staff, helping to deliver death notices to fellow inmates of family members on the outside who had died. They used their training in the context in which they lived, and moved, and had their being (Acts 17:28).
The PTI program was retired and soon, a new Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) was introduced at Marion and a modified curriculum was introduced later at Toledo Correctional Institution (a Level 4 high-security, highly restrictive environment for incarcerated individuals who pose a serious risk to staff, other inmates, or facility operations) under the leadership of seminary president, Dr. Brent Sleasman. Two more cohorts graduated from the ICS program at Marion. Two cohorts at Toledo were started simultaneously, one for general population students and those in restrictive custody. In the meantime, other prisons began calling asking for a similar ministry training program for their locations. Mansfield Correctional and Allen-Oakwood at Lima were the first to seek a program. Mansfield is a Level 3 a “close” security environment designated for individuals who pose a higher risk than medium-security inmates, yet are not considered maximum-security threats. Allen-Oakwood is a Level 1 minimum-security facility representing the lowest and least restrictive security level in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) system
Our challenge to meet these requests were threefold: 1) we needed a qualified instructor for each location; 2) each instructor had to travel as much as 2.5 hours away to teach at the prison and then back again; and 3) textbooks could not be drop-shipped to the prisons and delivery of books to the individual locations required weeks-long scrutiny. Security requirements changed, some were heightened, some proved too restrictive. Computers and laptops were removed; homework had to be hand-written. It seemed instead of moving into the new technological age, carceral learning took several giant steps back.
But like many problems in theological education, there is a solution! Next week I’ll share more about how we’re navigating this increased interest and challenges related to technology and teaching.
- Dr. Martin Johnson, Chief Academic Officer