Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion has been given a $1.3 million grant by Premier Foto, a subsidiary of Premier Designs, to study the effects of seminary programs in prisons.
The study, which is the first of its kind, will follow anecdotal reports stemming from the Louisiana State Penitentiary commonly known as Angola. Over the past 17 years, Angola, regarded as one of the toughest maximum-security prisons in the nation, has reportedly seen dramatic decreases in the violence that once defined the prison. The reformation of the Angola prison is said to be the result of the Angola Bible College, a seminary program established by former warden Burl Cain in 1995.