Angola inmates earn seminary degrees

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ANGOLA, LA (WAFB) - On Thursday, Dec. 20, the Leavell College of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Angola (NOBTS) - Joan Horner Extension Center held commencement ceremonies for 2016 through 2018 at Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Sixty-four inmates earned their BAs in Christian Ministry, while another 23 graduate certificates in Mentoring were also awarded. Those who earned these graduate certificates will go on to earn their master’s in Pastoral Ministry. The master’s program at Angola began in 2017 and is the first program of its kind offered through NOBTS in a prison setting, says the Department of Corrections (DOC).

The graduates will be used in ministry throughout the Chaplains Department. Some will become missionaries and sent to other prisons in Louisiana to assist those chaplains departments.

Many graduates also serve as pastors for the offender-lead churches at Angola. Some others serve as ministers in the prison’s hospital.

DOC says the graduates are also mentors and instructors in Corrections Re-Entry Court and other moral rehab program at the prison. DOC also says since the beginning of the program in 1995, there has been a significant downturn in violence at the prison. There have been more than 300 graduates since 1995.

A number of seminary graduates have been released from prison and are now actively engaged in ministry and churches across the state.

DOC says 12 states have similar seminary programs for prisons.