photograph by justin fox burks / courtesy rhodes college
Editor’s Note: There are always plenty of new and exciting ventures to be found in Memphis. The Bluff City has become something of a hub for innovation, daring creators and dreamers to discover new breakthroughs that move our community forward. In 2023, for our eleventh annual Innovation Awards, Memphis Magazine features five progress-focused individuals and organizations who are showcasing Memphis’ continued evolution through innovation. This year, we recognize UTHSC’s state-of-the-art center for healthcare improvement and patient simulation, Dr. Stephen Haynes and Rhodes College’s curated curriculum that bring the liberal arts to incarcerated students, Dr. Ernö Lindner’s fast-acting drug detection technology which improves medical response time for overdose patients, Tennis Memphis and its commitment to making the sport accessible to all, and the Overton Park Shell’s mobile “Shell on Wheels” that brings live music to every corner of Memphis. They’re all worthy winners in their own right, and are doing their utmost to move Memphis forward. We will celebrate our winners at the 2023 Innovation Awards breakfast on Tuesday, October 10th, sponsored by Protech Services Group and eBiz Solutions. — Samuel X. Cicci
In the mid 2010s, Dr. Stephen Haynes found himself at a bit of a crossroads. The professor of religious studies at Rhodes College and ordained Presbyterian minister had been thinking about his future in academia, mulling over whether to stay in Memphis or accept an offer from another college, when a colleague from Lipscomb University in Nashville reached out. The colleague asked about higher education programs in West Tennessee correctional facilities, and Haynes started researching. When that didn’t turn up much, he started thinking about what a Rhodes curriculum might offer incarcerated individuals. Immediately, he’d found his reason to stay in Memphis.
Now every Monday and Thursday during the semester, Haynes, alongside several student volunteers and guest faculty, makes the hour-plus drive to the West Tennessee State Penitentiary (WTSP) in Henning, Tennessee, a women’s facility. There, they meet with classes of around 20 incarcerated people, all officially enrolled as Rhodes students, in the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center, an institution that aids in career development and reentry services. “Our program started in the fall of 2016 as the Great Books Reading Program,” says Haynes. The curriculum saw students read classics ranging from Paradise Lost to The Epic of Gilgamesh.
“Our first class had around 25 students, and there were a lot of our faculty interested in participating,” recalls Haynes, “so we featured books from just about every academic discipline.”
However, it quickly became clear that his new students sought a program that would allow them to earn college credits. Haynes petitioned Rhodes to implement an undergraduate certificate of liberal arts, which would be given to incarcerated students upon graduation from the program. In 2019, he launched the Liberal Arts in Prison program: a four-class, 12-credit program modeled after Rhodes’ SEARCH seminar program, a “three-semester sequence of humanities courses that focuses on major works that have formed the Western tradition,” which has been the foundation of the school’s liberal arts foundation since 1946. The new credit-bearing program is the only one of its kind in West Tennessee.
“The two-year curriculum, and a slightly slower pace, works better when we’re working within the parameters of the state prison program, and all the challenges that entails,” says Haynes. “Issues arise that are out of anybody’s control, so there’s a certain degree of flexibility involved.” In the inaugural class, for example, a supervisor forgot to notify one student that class had started. If there’s a medical emergency, patients are transferred to Nashville, where protocol may leave students for weeks, or even months, without access to their books. But Haynes, faculty, and student volunteers are up for the challenge. “It’s the same texts, taught by the same professors, that students will experience on campus,” he says.
“Our program is pretty distinctive because it’s quintessentially Rhodes. It’s the liberal arts foundational program that forms the basis of what we do as an institution, and a curriculum that every student who enrolls partakes in.” — Dr. Stephen Haynes
Haynes is adamant that all of the classes will remain in-person. Federal funding is available again for the first time for prison education programs, but most institutions plan to stick with online classes. “A lot of prison education programs are done over the internet,” he says. “Some professors might have Zoom office hours, but students aren’t really building a relationship with their instructors. There isn’t room for interaction and discussion.”
Since Haynes began the four-course program, 63 women have enrolled and earned a cumulative 550 credit hours. The certificate, once acquired, can be used to apply credits to degree programs at partner schools such as Lane College and Dyersburg State College. “Our program is pretty distinctive because it’s quintessentially Rhodes,” says Haynes. “It’s the liberal arts foundational program that forms the basis of what we do as an institution, and a curriculum that every student who enrolls partakes in.”
Having worked in the women’s prison at WTSP, Haynes hopes to begin a program for the men’s side in the future. “We haven’t been approached about starting a program there just yet, but we have the track record to show that it can work,” he says. “A lot of inmates simply don’t have access to educational programming, and because of their situation, going to college isn’t even something that’s on their radar. But this program allows them to take that first step, and a tangible one, towards getting a degree.”
Looking ahead, Haynes hopes to build a bridge between the Liberal Arts in Prison program and the campus proper. “We encounter a lot of students who are very bright, very smart, and would do very well at Rhodes,” says Haynes. “It’s been in development for a long time, and there are a lot of challenges involved in making that happen, but we’re looking at a way for graduates of the program to become students on campus.”
