Making moral rehabilitation real in the lives of every inmate in America...
Imagine a world with fewer crime victims, less violence, and fewer people returning to prison.
A light into the darkness...
People serving time in prison often represent at-risk segments of society lacking educational, vocational, and economic opportunity. Too often, being incarcerated adds layers of challenges to a life already steeped in violence, trauma, broken families, and loss. Many times individuals in prison are rejected, despised, disenfranchised, and forgotten by society.
At Prison Seminaries Foundation (PSF), we have a different vision. We believe that the greatest asset in any correctional system is the morally rehabilitated inmate.
We see a world where individuals in prison can regain their dignity and self-worth to become powerful agents of change for good, transforming their lives and the lives of those around them.
Transforming prison culture from the inside
As inmates become students who become peer ministers, the effects of moral rehabilitation spread throughout the population. Program graduates are not put in positions of authority over other inmates — it’s truly peer-to-peer ministry that provides support and guidance in ways no external program can.
Church leaders replace gang leaders as a positive force for change
Inmates begin to hold each other accountable for good behavior
Incidents of violence decrease
Relationships between inmates and staff improve
Becoming an agent of change
The foundation of PSF’s efforts is the Prison Seminary Model (PSM) results in an education program established within a prison that offers:
A high quality education program in the prison which has:
- The same academic curriculum available to students outside the prison
- Accreditation with national or regional accreditors
- Programs taught by highly qualified professors
- Opportunities for inmates of all faiths
- Complete self-sufficiency: Funding is provided entirely by donors without federal or state tax dollars
Moral rehabilitation through the Prison Seminary Model has the power to break generational cycles of dysfunction caused by crime, violence, and substance abuse.
- Program participants reconnect with family members while in prison
- Parents become part of children’s lives again
- Program graduates who are paroled return to their communities with leadership and ministry skills
