For nearly a decade, professors and students from Rhodes College have made a weekly drive to the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center in Henning, Tennessee. What began in fall 2016 as a Great Books discussion group with about 25 women has grown into a credited liberal arts program. As of spring 2025, 92 incarcerated women have earned 765 Rhodes credits, and 32 have completed certificates. This summer, a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation will launch a full Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies at the facility, with expanded programming also coming to the men’s unit at West Tennessee State Penitentiary.
The case for the program rests on outcomes. Dr. Stephen Haynes, who directs the initiative, points to research showing participants in prison higher education are 43% less likely to return to prison. Students like Jameshia Davis, who is serving a 24-year sentence and tutoring classmates in the program, illustrate the personal side of those statistics. Davis plans to pursue her degree after a parole hearing in May.
For Suncoast listeners, the story lands close to home in a region built on fresh starts and second acts, where families know plenty about rebuilding after storms and new beginnings after moves south. Programs like this raise real questions about punishment, rehabilitation, and what a community owes the people who return to it. What’s your take: should college degrees be part of the conversation inside every state prison? Weigh in below.
