Calvin College Holds Picnic for Families of Prisoner Students

I am blessed to be one of now 57 Michigan prisoners who are Calvin College students in prison. Each of us was accepted into the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI), and we attend college classes at the Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan. The Handlon campus (in prison) is a fully accredited extension of the Calvin College main campus, and classes are taught by professors with impressive credentials. Each CPI student is working towards a bachelor's degree in Ministry Leadership with a minor in Social Work.

On July 29th Calvin College held a picnic at the main campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan for loved ones of CPI students. This picnic was an opportunity for the families and friends of the CPI students to enjoy a meal provided by Calvin College and to get to know some of our professors, tutors, mentors, the program's co-directors, and the Handlon prison's Warden Dewayne Burton who has been an incredible advocate and supporter of the CPI program.

After a delicious meal, the CPI students' families and friends who attended the picnic watched and listened to several presentations, including pictures and video of the CPI students, and presentations by co-director Dr. Todd Cioffi and Warden Burton. Although we CPI students were not allowed to attend the picnic (for security reasons), we have heard reports already from our loved ones who attended and who were blessed to hear about the positive work of the CPI students at Handlon.

Some of the highlights shared by Warden Burton included: CPI students tutoring Jackson College prisoner students who are attending classes under Pell grants, CPI students facilitating math, algebra, and geometry classes for the Vocational Village trades students at Handlon, CPI students assisting the employment readiness program at Handlon by helping prepare returning citizens for success upon release from prison, and CPI students cultivating and growing vegetables for donation to programs outside of prison. The picnic program also included highlights from the Restorative Justice conference organized by several CPI students and attended by over 300 people in April.

Those who attended this CPI picnic saw firsthand that prison does not have to have the negative stigma so often attached to it by the media. Even though its reach does not yet extend to all of Michigan's prisons, Calvin College and the CPI program are beginning to change the hearts and minds of Michigan's prisoners, and which time perhaps it will change the culture of Michigan's prisons as well.

For more information about Calvin College, visit www.Calvin.edu