Inmates Graduate Missionary Program

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Some inmates in South Carolina’s prisons have earned another designation: missionary.

Officials say 14 inmates are graduating on Friday from a two-year associate degree program at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.

The inmates have taken courses on the Old and New Testament, history and English. They will be assigned to inmate dorms at medium- and maximum-security  prisons throughout the state.

This is the second group of inmates to graduate from the program in conjunction with Columbia International University. Fifteen inmates graduated in 2008.

Corrections Director Jon Ozmint says he started the program after visiting a similar one at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
   
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