Stateville Correctional Center in far southwest suburban Crest Hill held a ceremony last week for about two dozen prisoners who earned a master’s degree in Christian Ministry.
This was the first class of graduates of the North Park University’s School of Restorative Arts. The program allows inmates at the Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers to study alongside free students.
Interim director of North Park’s School of Restorative Arts Vickie Reddy said when they were building the curriculum, inmates told them they didn’t want to be made happy prisoners. They wanted more, Reddy said, including opportunities to guide people who are at risk for ending up in prison.
“All of them will say, ‘I want to get back out there and help youth see things differently,’” Reddy said. “We have the answers to the violence that’s going on in Chicago.”
Reddy is among the 33 people who earned the advanced degree from the Christian university. The graduating class included 28 people who remain incarcerated and three who have been released.
She wants her classmates, most who are serving long sentences, to be considered for release now.
“Whatever that looks like, whether that is being released from the chains that they’re in, being released from the prison cells, or being able to still find freedom within that environment,” Reddy said.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was the commencement speaker at the Stateville graduation ceremony. Reddy said the end of this four-year journey raised some questions.
“What now? How do we provide infinite pathways for them to use their degree?” Reddy said.
North Park is working out details with the Department of Corrections to have some of the graduates help teach future classes in the program at two prisons, offering a perspective Reddy says that others don’t have.
“This is not a prison-ministry type [of] program, or a bible-study type [of] program,” Reddy said. “This is a holistic, robust, degree program that offers really tangible classes in trauma and healing … and nonviolent communication.”
The first graduating class from the Logan Correctional Center will get their degrees in 2025.
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