Moral rehabilitation through the Prison Seminary Model works.

Under Burl Cain’s leadership, a seminary program through the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was put in place, which resulted in a 90% reduction in violence between 1996 and 2004. Since that time, Angola has become one of the safest, most secure, most progressive maximum-security prisons in the nation.

The transformation of Angola Prison in Louisiana during the twenty-two years of Burl Cain’s leadership as Senior Warden has been celebrated widely and researched extensively. Cain said, “the moral rehabilitation that happened at Angola was a result of bringing in an accredited seminary/Bible college program and allowing inmates to be trained to be ministers to their peers.”  The elements to the Prison Seminary Model include:

• an accredited school with a four-year degree program that encourages moral change and servanthood,

• private funding for the school’s services, and

• a cooperative department of corrections that will allow inmates to serve as agents of change through peer ministry.

Burl Cain and the Prison Seminaries Foundation (PSF) Team brings a wealth of knowledge from more than 50 years of expertise in the field of professional corrections, chaplaincy, and the academic arena.  Leveraging our experience and the collaborative network of politicians, departments of corrections, seminaries, universities, donors, and sustainability personnel, PSF is in a strong position to bring about both moral and social rehabilitation within prisons across the country by creating life-transforming programs. 

Simply put, PSF exists to create transformational opportunities in cooperation with state departments of corrections (DOC’s) and institutions of higher education that support the moral rehabilitation of every inmate. Will you join us in making moral rehabilitation real?