OUR SEVEN CORE VALUES:
Wisdom Inside Walls
“It’s the low and battered places,
edges bent and torn,
hidden in the darkened woods—
it’s there your spirit’s born.”
Anne Buck, “Rain on a Flat Tin Roof”
You find light in the darkness in the most unexpected places. For instance, a few weeks ago I wasn’t expecting that wisdom regarding children would be imparted by men serving life sentences at the maximum security prison in Columbia. I was at Kirkland with my 14-year-old son (homeschool “field trip”) researching and interviewing for an article that will appear in Connection magazine about Columbia International University’s Prison Initiative. It is program started three years ago that enables a select few inmates – 15 each year – to earn a two-year Associates Degree in Bible.
These men will likely stay inside the prison system – for life or many more years. Yet, instead of just serving out their time doing mundane tasks, they will be trained to expose other inmates to Biblical teachings. As one inmate/student, serving more than one life sentence, expressed, “If some of us get out of here and become your neighbors, do you want him to be living according to God’s word – or not.”
The men in the CIU program have already been transformed. This was evident in the way they greeted my son and me. With the utmost respect, they shook our hands and thanked us over and over again for “visiting” them.
“M,” “D,” and “C,” are in their second year of studies in the CIU program. Each has a personal testimony about how they were led to apply to the program. C gave up one of the highest paying jobs an inmate can procure in order to answer a higher calling. M says he cried when he learned he had been accepted. All say they now feel there is a purpose for their lives inside the prison walls.
When my son and I sat down with these three, they spoke candidly – not about how they got to prison – but their hopes for their future in prison:
“My mother is so proud of me that I’m getting a degree,” said M, who entered prison at 17 and has served 19 years of his life sentence. “It’s incredible to have this opportunity. I don’t deserve any of it. It’s most definitely a gift.”
When interviewed later by phone, M’s mother said, “I think this is the greatest thing that could have happened to him. You can’t go back and undo what’s done. You have to go forward. And he’s going forward. I’m so proud of him. Nothing’s going to stop me from coming to his graduation.”
The other two discussed how they would use their “gifts” of teaching to reach others. All men convicted of a crime and serving at least 90 days must go through Kirkland. Already this year, these men in the CIU program have had access to a mission field of more than 10,000 men.
Up to this point during my visit to Kirkland, the warmth and openness that these CIU students/inmates shared was beyond anything I had expected. Often, I fought back tears of compassion for them. Not surprisingly, however, one of the professors explained that these inmates are the minority – in a South Carolina prison system that includes more than 20,000. Even the men admitted that they were previously as hardened, angry, and belligerent as many of their fellow inmates – before their hearts were changed.
Yet, I was not prepared for the streams of wisdom that the three men I interviewed would offer to my son. As we stood up to leave, one of the men asked me, “Can we speak to your son?” As a mother, I hesitated. In a split second, you can only imagine the thoughts that ran through my head. What could these three hardened criminals have to say to my son?
C looked directly into my son’s eyes and said, “I lie in my bunk every single night of my life in here and wish more than anything that I was 14 again and could do it over again. I did not think before I acted and I made terrible, terrible mistakes.”
M added, “Your parents set boundaries for you because they love you so much. Please stay inside those boundaries. They are there for you to protect you. I did not stay inside the boundaries that my mother, who still loves me, set for me.”
Finalized D, “You’re on top of the world when you’re young, but you have to settle down and think clearly. Not doing the right thing will ruin your life.”
As we were leaving, others approached. Almost all of them looked beyond me and with a look of almost desperation shook my son’s hand and uttered bits of wisdom: “Please don’t ever let me see you in here.” “Listen to your parents.” “Remember to obey your parents.”
My son and I walked out of that room, across the sterile yard surrounded by towers housing sharp shooters, through a long and damp concrete tunnel, through massive iron doors that slammed shut behind us, past armed guards and metal detectors, and beyond the 20-foot fences lined from top to bottom with razor wire. My son turned to me and said, “I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.”
One Response to “Wisdom Inside Walls”
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Thank you for this article: a real blessing. I have a 15 year old homeschooled son, and I appreciate the courage it took to bring him to a SC prison. Thank you for the encouraging words about the CIU Prison Initiative. I am a CIU graduate and I appreciate the fresh perspective on what CIU and the Lord have cultivated in ministry at Kirkland.