Skip to main content
NC DPS logo NC DPS

Topical Navigation

  • Home
  • Our Organization
    Our Organization
    • Law Enforcement
    • Adult Correction
    • Juvenile Justice
    • Emergency Management
    • Homeland Security
    • North Carolina National Guard
    • Office of Recovery & Resiliency
  • DPS Services
    DPS Services
    • Offender Search
    • Victim Services
    • Permits & Licenses
    • Grants
    • Prison Rape Elimination Act
    • Safety Tips
    • Samarcand Training Academy
    • Spanish Resources
  • Careers That Matter
    Careers That Matter
    • Career Fairs
    • Correctional Officers
    • DPS Healthcare
    • Probation and Parole Officers
    • State Highway Patrol
    • Alcohol Law Enforcement
    • Emergency Management
    • Juvenile Justice Careers
    • State Capitol Police
    • Contact a DPS Recruiter
    • NCDPS Internships
  • About DPS
    About DPS
    • Office of the Secretary
    • Administration
    • Professional Standards, Policy and Planning
    • Divisions
    • Boards and Commissions
    • Statistics and Data
    • Administrative Rules
    • Current Initiatives
  • News
    News
    • Press Releases
    • News Conferences
    • Blog: DPS Dispatch
    • In Case You Missed It
    • Calendar of Events
    • Media Contacts
  • Contact
    Contact
    • Frequently Called Phone Numbers
    • Public Records Request
    • Directory
    • Report Fraud, Waste or Abuse
    • Send Email
  • NC.GOV
  • AGENCIES
  • JOBS
  • SERVICES
NC DPS »   Home »   blog

‘God’s Fingerprints Are All Over This Program’

December 16, 2021

Author: Brad Deen

Prisons’ first field ministers graduate from college, prepare to positively influence fellow offenders.

NASHVILLE — Black-robed, masked and wearing traditional mortarboards, 24 offenders at Nash Correctional Institution collected a bachelor’s degree on Wednesday. They are the first class of graduates from the Field Ministry Program, trained to support and counsel fellow offenders.

 “Now focus on your future, on your journey going forward,” urged Super Bowl-winning Coach Joe Gibbs, whose Game Plan for Life organization provided funding for the program. “I’m proud of you, proud to be on your team. This took guts.”

Commissioner of Prisons Todd Ishee challenged graduates to be “a beacon of hope for offenders across the prison system who are in need of a mentor to guide them through incarceration.”

Faculty from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary taught inside the Nashville prison, providing offenders the same educational experience offered to undergraduates on the Wake Forest campus. Unlike a typical graduating class, all 24 field ministers graduated with honors: cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude.

“This is the first in my life I’ve seen this, and I’ve presided over 40 graduations,“ said Danny Akin, Southeastern’s president.

Summa graduate Lucas Rash, seated with his parents for post-graduation lunch, said he is excited about “the potential to be a positive influence, a friend, a mentor, whatever you want to call it.”

Rash, 35, will serve another 30-plus years for a hit-and-run that killed two people. “I would have considered myself a professed Christian all my adult life, but I didn’t live like it until a few years before entering this program,” he said.

 A buddy in his former prison home, Avery -Mitchell Correctional Institution, “challenged me to get serious about my relationship with God,” he said.

He anticipates doing the same when deployed to Foothills Correctional Institution in Morganton. His parents, who drove 262 miles from Shelby for the graduation, are overjoyed he’ll be only 40 miles away. “I joke that I can walk to Foothills faster than I can drive here,” said his mother, Donna Rash.

Besides Foothills, three other prisons will host the first group of field ministers: Granville, Warren and Piedmont correctional institutions. Future graduations will allow the program to expand into other state prisons.

“I think there’ll be a line to get these guys into the facilities,” said Nash CI Warden Drew Stanley.

Modeled after a program in Louisiana, the prisons field ministers augment existing programs, counseling and clergy staff, offering a peer’s perspective.

Taleena Lee, associate warden of programs, said the prison’s staff bought into the program and the hard work necessary to run it. “This was new for all of us, with a lot of firsts and a lot of questions to be asked,” Lee said, “but everyone remained open-minded and focused on the big picture.”

From programs to custody personnel, she added, everyone understood that the field ministers would “enhance the culture and safety within the North Carolina prison system for our population and our staff.”

The field ministers’ journey took a bit longer than anticipated — 4 ½ years from first class to degree walk. The extra semester was due to a pandemic pause.

The program itself moved quickly from inception just over five years ago, when Prisons, Coach Gibbs’s organization and the College at Southeastern came together.

“This shows that a private and public partnership supporting educational opportunities works in this state,” said Seth Bible, Southeastern’s prison programs director.

More than 100 offenders applied for admission, with 30 making the initial cut and 24 completing the degree program.

“An 80 percent graduation rate is remarkable,” Bible said. “God’s fingerprints are all over this program.”

# # #

This blog is related to:

  • Prisons

Related Articles

  • Chatham YDC’s Sartwell Named JJDP Teacher of the Year 
  • Two Years Later, Corrections Leadership Class Graduates
  • Safeguarding our Communities
  • One Week at Camp Creates a Lifetime of Memories for Juveniles
  • Community Corrections Director’s Award 2022
  • Legacy of the Furr Family: From Grandfather to Father to Son and Extended Family
  • Hazard Mitigation Professional Lops off Locks for Childhood Cancer Research
  • Reentry conference 2022
  • Caught in the Act
  • N.C. Prisons Honors Fallen Staff
  • Hundreds Gather to Honor the State’s Fallen Officers
  • Second Chance Month 2022
  • Interns Leave Lasting Re-Entry Solutions for Older Juveniles
  • ALE: Enforcement with Education
  • Re-Entry To Resilience Model Presented at the NC Re-entry Conference

Share this page:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

How can we make this page better for you?

Back to top

Contact

NC Department of Public Safety

Physical Address: 
512 North Salisbury Street, Raleigh
 
Mailing Address:
4201 Mail Service Center, 

Raleigh, NC 27699-4201
 

919-733-2126

Activity Feed

Activity Feed

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Employee Directory
  • Translate Disclaimer
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Open Budget
NC DPS
https://www.ncdps.gov/blog/2021/12/16/%E2%80%98god%E2%80%99s-fingerprints-are-all-over-program%E2%80%99