Rhodes College expands prison education with new BA degree
A $500,000 Mellon Foundation grant will allow incarcerated women at the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center to enroll in a four-year liberal studies degree starting this summer.
By Lucas Sheridan ·
Rhodes College will offer a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies to inmates at the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center in Henning, Tennessee, beginning this summer. The expansion is funded by a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation and represents the most recent step in a program that began eight years ago as a casual book club.
Dr. Stephen Haynes, a professor of religious studies and humanities who directs the Liberal Arts in Prison program, said the initiative started in the fall of 2016 with a Great Books Discussion Group involving about 25 women. Participants soon requested formal college credit, prompting the development of a certificate program. As of the spring of 2025, 92 incarcerated women at the facility had accumulated 765 Rhodes credits, with 32 of them having earned certificates.
The new degree program will also support the expansion of educational offerings to the men’s facility at West Tennessee State Penitentiary. Haynes noted that individuals involved in higher education and prison settings are 43% less likely to return to incarceration. The program currently involves more than 70 Rhodes students who volunteer to lead discussions and assist with organizational activities.
Inmate Jameshia Davis, who is serving a 24-year sentence for drug and firearm possession, completed the certificate program and became a tutor for other women. She has a parole hearing scheduled for May and plans to continue pursuing a bachelor’s degree after her release. Davis said the program encouraged her son to pursue his own education, noting that seeing her engage in learning motivated him to believe in his own potential.
Dr. Lori Garner, an English professor at Rhodes who has participated in the program for approximately five years, said the experience improves her teaching by exposing her to diverse life perspectives. She brings these insights back to her on-campus classes. Rhodes seniors Sophie Stevenson and Laurel Phillips, who have volunteered for the program for two to three years, described the inmates as friends and said the work has defined their college careers.
Weekly, a group of Rhodes professors and students gathers at the statue of former college president Charles Diehl on campus before traveling to the low-security rehabilitation facility. Instructors teach core components of the Rhodes curriculum. The new BA program will allow women to enroll in a full degree track rather than just earning certificates.
Haynes stated that program sponsors are seeking additional donors to help sustain the initiative. The expansion aims to provide a structured academic path for a larger population of incarcerated individuals at both the women’s and men’s facilities in West Tennessee.
