Cain said when he first started sending “missionaries” out to other prisons, the culture began changing there, too. Inmate violence dropped at Dixon Correctional Facility in Jackson, La., by 43 percent within the first six months after the missionaries arrived, Cain said.
At Angola, he raised $2 million to build churches on the 18,000-acre site, which now has six houses of worship.
Not every enrollee is a success.
Some Parchman inmates have not been in school for decades, and others enter the program with only a general equivalency diploma. Held to the same standards as any seminary student, many cannot complete the program.
Well before the inmate seminary programs, prisons have had chaplains and volunteer or church groups who offer services. But inmate evangelists have a steadier day-to-day role, since outsiders can only visit once a week or a weekend.
“What we try to do is get the men to see that this is their world for as long as they've been sentenced. They can make a difference in it,” Bley said.
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