Warden Burl Cain of Louisiana State Penitentiary, also called Angola, is the longest-serving warden they've ever had. "Under his leadership, the inmate population . . has gone from regular knife fights to Bible studies." (Not the whole inmate population obviously.)
Terrible violence ruled, such that inmates would take turns guarding each other while they slept at night. Cain didn't want the job at first, warden of the "bloodiest prison" in America. But he began to pray for wisdom to change things.
They lost their Pell grants for education. Someone suggested that they bring the Bible college in to teach courses, and his response was, "have you lost your mind? They will never come here." But they did, and Cain says they changed the culture of the prison. Taxpayers put no money into the program, but they have a safer, more humane penitentiary.
Cursing is close to fighting, Cain says, so he required staff to clean up their language - all part of the whole "moral rehabilitation" culture change.
No comments:
Post a Comment