Baptist theological seminary offers degree opportunities to inmates
By Melissa Gregory
The Town Talk
COLFAX, La. (AP) - A bad decision to take some car keys led Aldric Fields down the road to a 100-year prison sentence at Angola, but that wasn't his final destination.
He's now at the Grant Parish Detention Center, the first inmate to be transferred out of Angola in an outreach effort that Sheriff Steven McCain hopes reduces recidivism. He and his wardens say they've already have seen a difference in the inmate population in the few weeks Fields has been in Colfax.
"What I'm hoping that we're going to see is our recidivism rate is going to go down," he said. "What I mean by that is, we have a continuous cycle. We see the same faces and the same names over and over and over again."
McCain said he's starting to see some of the children of those repeat offenders, too.
"If we can break that cycle or at least slow it down, everybody wins."
Fields, 50, once was a college basketball player with a scholarship. But a booster offered him a car as an enticement to keep him at school for his senior year and, when he accepted it, officials found out about it from jealous teammates. He lost his scholarship and his spot on the team, returning to his Shreveport hometown.
It wasn't long before he became involved with drugs and other crimes. In 2000, he was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, and prosecutors successfully got him tagged as a habitual offender.
The result was the 100-year sentence to Angola - no reduction of sentence or possibility of parole or probation.
McCain said he'd read about how Angola had reduced violence within the prison over a few decades, "and the only explanation was because we started telling people about Jesus Christ."
Then he found out about the degree opportunities offered to inmates through the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, which had been invited there by former warden Burl Cain. In an October 2013 interview with The New York Times, Cain said it "changed the culture of the prison."
McCain contacted Cain and asked if one of those inmates could be transferred to Grant, and he agreed. While the inmates often were sent to other locations temporarily, Grant Parish is the first to get one permanently.
It wasn't easy, said McCain, talking about the paper work and other requirements his office had to meet over a long period of time before it became official. "I just think it's going to be great, and I don't think there's anything bad out of exposing someone to Jesus Christ."
Fields finds himself the chaplain at the detention center's new Together Chapel, which was dedicated in mid-June when McCain and his deputies were sworn in for another term. The small chapel was paid for with donations from area pastors.
Before Fields was selected, McCain went to Angola with the detention center's Warden Jody Bullock and Assistant Warden Clay Churchmen. The men interviewed four inmates, but Fields was the only one to readily admit that his own actions were responsible for his imprisonment.
That impressed McCain, and Fields was offered the opportunity.
On a recent Tuesday, Fields slightly bent his 6-foot, 7-inch frame as he entered the chapel. He admitted that he wasn't eager at first to leave Angola, saying that he had everything he could want from a life behind bars at the facility after graduating with a degree in 2010.
But serving more than a year's span at a Winnfield prison changed his outlook. The experience showed him how he could reach other inmates.
"It helped me to really understand my talents a lot more and my ability to reach people," he said. "I saw that there was much more of a need to touch people that are going home rather than where I was."
Many inmates are hurting, in one way or another, said Fields, and that has to be addressed.
"The very first thing in dealing with people is that you have to minister deliverance from every past hurt, every past pain," he said. "Once a person goes past deliverance, then it comes to teaching them how to walk like a Christian."
And he said the most important thing is that there must be a bridge between inmates and their communities for any re-entry to be successful.
"Many times when people get out of prison, they don't have a church to go to because people see them as outcasts," he said. "And I think that's one of the greatest things about being here. I've told the guys that they have a sheriff and wardens that really care about them enough and a community that cares enough to build a chapel."
Fields believes that community connection will be the focal point of his work. Some of his other responsibilities - as a certified tutor and administrator of a program called Malachi Dads, which teaches fathers how to parent from behind bars and on the outside - also depend on that connection.
One father has spoken to him about how he's afraid to communicate with his young daughter while he's incarcerated. Inmates fear they can be rejected or struggle with what exactly to tell their children about their past.
He called it an excellent program that can help dads deal with their own pain while learning how to communicate with their children. Fields also said he's had other inmates approach him, eager to know when adult education classes are beginning.
While busy, he's already approached officials with other ideas to implement at the detention center. Among those plans is becoming certified to bring a drug treatment plan to the center.
Both Bullock and Churchman said they've noticed a change since Fields' arrival. A group has asked for permission to form a choir, and there's been more participation in faith-based programs, said Bullock.
Churchman said he's watched on closed-circuit television as an inmate approached Fields at his bed to talk.
Bullock points to that as the biggest thing Fields brings to Grant's inmates. He said he and others at the detention center can talk to inmates every day and tell them they understand their plight.
"He can relate to them," said Churchman.
"And they can see how he's turned his life around," added Bullock. "It lets them know that it's possible for them, too, and not just a repetitive system of having a cell door close behind you for the rest of your life."
Published: Mon, Aug 29, 2016
