We may not have to wait for a new Legislature and new Governor to start turning prisoners into preachers. Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, is already acting on Governor Larry Rhoden’s okee-dokee to establish a privately funded prison seminary program in the South Dakota State Penitentiary:
A Northwestern College faculty member briefed the South Dakota Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force on Wednesday about establishing a prison seminary program at the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
Sociology professor Chris Hausmann said Prison Seminaries Foundation would raise funds to pay for program. The college would bill the foundation for the program’s cost, he said.
Northwestern College is a Christian-based four-year campus in Orange City, Iowa.
…[Corrections] Secretary [Nick] Lamb had established a prison seminary program in Illinois when he worked there. The task force on December 17 recommended moving forward on a prison seminary program. Gov. Rhoden decided that same day to accept the recommendation.
Hausmann said Wednesday that Northwestern College could start setting up the program at the State Penitentiary in January 2027.
Secretary Lamb told the task force that the department would assess the interest of inmates throughout South Dakota’s prison system and transfer them to the penitentiary to participate in the program.
Northwestern was founded by a Dutch Reformed pastor in 1882. The college calls itself Reformed in commitment, evangelical in engagement, and ecumenical in spirit, so I’ll be curious to see (as will other close anti-Establishment watchers of the First Amendment) if the pastors the new ecumenically spirited seminary cranks out of the pen will include Lutherans and Methodists… and what accommodations Northwestern will be able to make for inmates who feel called to bring Allah’s or Buddha’s word to the world.
Teaching a convict the art of the religionist grift is peak Republican Zionism.
This troubles me deeply. As a licensed minister and a former inmate who is now ministering in South Dakota.
If the prision system is truly looking to reform then why would you bring in a program that it’s founder is heavily surrounded by controversy.
Burl Cain is not a man that brings confidence nor models the type of lifestyle the Bible describes as Christian.
The biggest problem we face in ministering in South Dakota is fighting so called faith based programs that have no foundation in the Bible and are Christian in name only.
South Dakota needs a revival of inmates who know God not know about God.
I believe Trump will free everyone he can if they vote for him. His base is falling fast. He’s already going for the Mary Janes boys. He’s Nixon on this election.
OK how is this really going to help these guys? Teach them a skill they can make a living at when they get out. We need welders, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, nurses, etc.
What causes recidivism? They often return to the circumstances that caused them to get in trouble in the first place and there are no jobs for them. Becoming a spiritual or religious person can certainly help with self-definition but they don’t pay the rent or buy food.
There are other states that have successful programs and they have populations in the 10’s of millions. Nothing will change here because the powers that be enjoy spending more on prisoners than our children.
Street preachers with megaphones outside professional sports venues are in high demand.