Rhodes College professors bringing elite education to inmates

HENNING, Tenn. (InvestigateTV) - It’s not unusual to see students working on college-level coursework, earnestly taking notes from the professor.

But some of the lessons being taught by Rhodes College professors aren’t being delivered in a lecture hall, or even on a school campus, but inside a facility at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary.

“It was the last decade of 15 years of my career here was looming and I wanted to do something maybe different, challenging,” said Dr. Stephen Haynes, a 30-year professor of religious studies and humanities at Rhodes College.

Haynes is the director of the college’s “Liberal Arts in Prison” program.

“People who were involved in higher education and prison are 43% less likely to go back to prison,” Haynes said.

The program started as a Great Books Discussion Group in the fall of 2016 with about 25 women interested.

Dr. Haynes said it soon became apparent what the inmates really wanted was a program that gave them college credit.

Now, every week, a group of Rhodes professors and students gather on campus at the statue of former college president Charles Diehl to begin their trek to the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center in Henning, Tennessee, a low-security rehabilitation-focused prison where instructors teach the hallmarks of a Rhodes College curriculum.

“And so, we were able to develop a certificate program,” Haynes said. “At the end, by May, we’ll have about 45 women who have graduated with these certificates of liberal arts.”

Women like inmate Jameshia Davis — serving a 24-year sentence for drug and firearm possession.

“I thought it was hard at first, because when you hear Rhodes College, it makes you think of like Harvard or something,” Davis said. “Education, if you would have mentioned education to me before I came to prison, I would have probably looked at you like you was crazy.”

Davis not only completed the program but also became a tutor for other incarcerated women.

“I would just like to encourage anyone who’s either discouraged about school, education, whatever it may be, to just challenge yourself and to just know that you can do anything that you put your mind to,” Davis said.

Rhodes English professor Dr. Lori Garner has been part of the prison program for about five years.

“I really think they make me a better teacher. When I learn their perspectives, I can bring them back into my classes at Rhodes. And that really helps everyone,” Garner said. “They bring really diverse life experiences to these same stories that I’ve been teaching for decades.”

Rhodes seniors Sophie Stevenson and Laurel Phillips work closely with the inmates, leading discussion groups and other organizational activities — two of the more than 70 students who’ve volunteered for the program.

Both say over the two to three years they’ve been involved, they’ve come to see the women as friends.

“We hear about their kids and their grandkids and the pets and the birthdays and special occasions and when they are going up for parole and like potentially going to be released,” Phillips said.

The student helpers say the program has not only changed their perspectives about prisons and prisoners but also their own lives.

“I would love to keep working in prisons after this, and I’m really grateful to have gotten this opportunity. I think this is not something that I came to college thinking about or knowing was an option, and now it’s sort of defined my entire college career,” Stevenson said.

For inmates like Davis — who has a parole hearing in May — these classes provide a chance to change their futures and perhaps even the futures of those they love.

“I don’t know, it was kind of really encouraging for my oldest son because he’s in high school and he just...when they see good things that I’m doing, it makes them be like, ‘Hey. If mama can do it, I can do it,’” Davis said.

As of spring of 2025, 92 incarcerated women at WTRC had accumulated 765 Rhodes credits, with 32 earning certificates.

It’s a lesson that extends far beyond the walls of a prison.

“They’re human beings with a future. They’re not the worst thing they’ve ever done. Most of them will get out and they have a lot of potential and it’s great to see that potential being realized,” Haynes said.

Jameshia Davis plans to continue her education toward a bachelor’s degree when she gets released.

And thanks to a $500,000 Mellon Foundation grant, a new Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies will be offered at WRTC and support the expansion of educational programming in the men’s facility at West Tennessee State Penitentiary.

That means, starting this summer, WTRC inmates will be able to enroll in a full four-year degree program as part of the Liberal Arts in Prison initiative.

Professor Haynes said the program sponsors are looking for ways to help sustain the program into the future and are looking for donors who want to see it succeed.