Twenty-four men wearing black caps and gowns strode across the stage of the Nash Correctional gym last week to collect a Bachelor of Arts diploma in pastoral ministry. For these men, about half of whom will spend the rest of their lives in prison with no chance of parole, the march to the stage at the prison, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, was a high-water mark of their life behind bars. All 24 inmates graduated with honors; three of the men had a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Now they will fan out across the state’s 55 prisons to serve the rest of their sentences ministering to other inmates.
