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- Rethinking Incarceration, Dominique Dubois Gilliard
- The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
- Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
- 13th: From Slave to Criminal With One Amendment
- The House I Live In
- Returning Citizens Resource Map
- CPI students who become returning citizens may receive CPI academic support and/or CPI housing support. Such support is complimentary and may vary depending upon availability of resources. Eligible CPI students may elect to receive it or to apply normally and pursue their academic career traditionally. For students who elect to receive CPI academic support and/or CPI housing support, additional criteria and expectations are involved. These criteria and expectations are outlined in the Calvin Prison Initiative Reentry Honor Code.The expectations outlined in this agreement are supplementary to those required by the University and entered into voluntarily.
- Celebration Fellowship Christian Reformed Church: A multi-site Christian Reformed congregation who meets in Bellamy Creek and Handlon correctional facilities, the prison where the Calvin Prison Initiative is located. A few of our students attend this church while also working to complete their degree at the Handlon campus.
- Crossroads Prison Ministries: A global ministry seeking to connect incarcerated individuals with volunteer mentors on the outside. Unlikely friendships are formed, and the lives of both prisoner and mentor are changed as they exchange letters, study God's Word, and apply biblical truths to their lives. Their mission is to connect prisoners with mentors in Christ-centered relationships so that lives, prisons and churches are restored through the Gospel.
- Forgiven Ministry, One Day with God: A North Carolina based organization who seeks to bring the “good news of God’s love and forgiveness to those behind bars.” One of their pinnacle programs is called One Day with God, a program done in prisons all over the country. The goal of this program is to bring incarcerated parents into contact with their children for one day as they do a variety of activities together behind the prison walls. On November 3, 2018, Handlon Prison, where CPI is located, hosted its first One Day with God event.
- Forgotten Man Ministries: Forgotten Man Ministries believes in the redemption, rehabilitation and restoration of inamtes through Jesus Christ. Their primary ministry is to empower chaplains and volunteers to share hope and salvation with the men and women incarcerated in Michigan's county jails. One way to get involved is as a church community. Churches can sign up to host a worship service in the Kent County Jail on a monthly basis. The church oversees the organization, implementation, and leading of a 45-minute worship service for a particular pod in the jail.
- Global Prison Seminaries Foundation: Global Prison Seminaries Foundation (GPSF) exists to create transformational opportunities in cooperation with the state Department of Corrections offices and higher-education institutions that support the moral rehabilitation of every inmate. They accomplish this mission by providing: (1) step-by-step assistance and ongoing support of Prison Seminary Model (PSM) program implementations. (2) Education and consulting services, and (3) accountability and continued research in the areas of morl rehabilitation and the PSM; and its impact on prison systems in the United States and other countries.
- Healing Communities of West MI, Stations of Hope: A ministry that works with men and women who are returning from incarceration, currently incarcerated, or at risk of incarceration. It is a faith-based movement that does its work through local ‘community partners’ called ‘Stations of Hope.’ In June 2018, the Calvin Prison Initiative was officially recognized as a ‘Station of Hope’ program.
- Prison Studies Project: The Prison Studies Project (PSP) was launched in 2008 at Harvard University to promote informed conversation about the challenges of mass incarceration. Born out of Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and currently housed at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, PSPs mission is to awaken the broadest possible public to the ways we punish and to reimagine justice in the United States. Since its inception, PSP has been committedto raising public awareness, teaching college courses inside prison, and injecting into the public conversation a discussion of policy alternatives. Their work has focused on research, education, and policy change.
- Alliance for Higher Education in Prison: A national organization dedicated to the expansion of quality higher education in prison, empowering students in prison and after release, and shaping public discussion about education and incarceration.
- Bard Prison Initiative: An accredited program spread across six interconnected prisons in New York State. It enrolls over 300 students and organizes a host of extracurricular activities to replicate the breadth of college life and inquiry. In all its work, BPI builds alliances to rethink access, reduce costs, and redress inequities in higher education.
- Darrington Seminary Program: The Darrington Seminary Program (DSP), which began in 2011, offers a four-year, 125-hour Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies degree to offenders in the Texas prison system. The program is an extension of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at the J. Dalton Harvard School for Theological Studies. To date, DSP has graduated 4 cohorts and has 130 Field Ministers serving in 26 prisons around the state of Texas.
- Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison: Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides college education, life skills and re-entry support to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men and women to help them make a positive impact on their own lives, their families and communities, resulting in lower rates of recidivism, incarceration and poverty.
- New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at Angola Prison: Beginning in 1995 the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) started teaching classes at Angola Prison in Louisiana. At that time, it was one of the bloodiest prisons in America, and today it is now one of the most 'churched' prisons in America. The mission of NOBTS is to equip leaders to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandments through the local church and its ministries. The Seminary leadership saw its role in the Angola Extension Center as a fulfillment of the mission of the Seminary. The need for ministry and spiritual leadership was great and offering a Seminary degree designed to train pastors seemed to meet that end.