title: "First Stop Dying".
abstract: This article offers an ethnographic account of the "self-projects" of inmate graduates of Louisiana State Penitentiary's (aka "Angola's") unique prison seminary program. Angola's Inmate Minister program deploys seminary graduates in bivocational pastoral service roles throughout America's largest maximum-security prison. Drawing upon the unique history of Angola, inmates establish their own churches and serve in lay-ministry capacities in hospice, cellblock visitation, tier ministry, officiating inmate funerals, and through tithing with "care packages" for indigent prisoners. Four themes of positive criminology prominently emerge from inmate narratives: (a) the importance of respectful treatment of inmates by correctional administrations, (b) the value of building trusting relationships for prosocial modeling and improved self-perception,
authors.affiliation: 1 University of North Florida, Jacksonville, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hallett
authors.affiliation: 2 Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.affiliation: 2 Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Byron
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: 2 Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Sung Joon
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: 3 Minnesota Department of Corrections, St. Paul, USA.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duwe
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana; D011329:Prisoners; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012067:Religion; D029181:Spirituality
keywords: Louisiana State Penitentiary; positive criminology; prison seminaries; religion in prison