Author: Jerry Higgins, Communications Officer
DURHAM – When Jorgie Brown exits the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) early next month, she will be ready for new beginnings. She has been busy preparing for her release after spending almost four years in prison for a drug trafficking conviction in Carteret County. She says she has worked hard to prepare for her reentry into society and is grateful she will be employed when he leaves the facility.
She will also have quite an accomplishment to add to her resume after having completed studies through the Duke Divinity School, taking graduate-level courses in subjects such as theology (studying the biblical book of Philippians), carceral saints (saints who were incarcerated), studying women and their spiritual journeys, delving into the works of noted 20th century Swiss theologian Karl Barth, and preaching to fellow offenders at NCCIW. Brown’s studies are part of a 16-year-long partnership between Duke Divinity School and NCDAC to offer seminary-style courses on site at state prisons in which half the class consist of incarcerated students and half are students studying at Duke Divinity School.
One of the rewards for that work was participating in the Duke Divinity School’s Closing Convocation in the Duke Chapel on April 10, where she received her Certificate of Achievement in Theological Education from Edgardo Colon-Emeric, the Dean of the school, and Daniel Castelo, the Associate Dean for Academic Formation. Former NCCIW Chaplain Sarah Jobe (a Duke Master of Divinity graduate who has been involved with the Duke Prison Studies program and is now the NCDAC Interim Director of Chaplaincy Services), current NCCIW chaplains Bernadine Anthony, Michelle Graham, Chaplain Elisa Rosoff, and Jenny Brown, and others were there to provide support and celebrate the accomplishment.
“It is tough. You are doing graduate level work,” Brown said. “I had a full-time job (working for Correction Enterprises), taking Duke Divinity classes and, in order to receive the certificate, I had to complete five courses before I got out. It has changed my life. It made me think about things I’ve never thought about before -- how do I fit into the world and what I’m supposed to do with all of this?”
Brown first heard about the Duke program from another participant while attending the NCCIW MATCH (Mothers and Their Children) program through Arise Collective. After the COVID pandemic passed, Brown started her first class and was encouraged by Chaplain Jobe to complete the five-class requirement for the certificate.
“I had to take correspondence classes in the summer to meet the requirement,” Brown said.
The classes challenged Brown to think in ways she’d never done in the past. She never studied the Bible like her theological class made her look at words. She described having to look at the words a different way and having to understand what the people in the Bible were saying. She said that class changed the way she now reads and studies the Bible.
The same night she received her certificate in Durham, Brown went back to NCCIW and preached to her fellow offenders in the homiletics class she is currently taking. Without taking the classes, that never would’ve happened.
What would she say to others who may be interested in this type of study?
“I would encourage them to do it,” Brown said. “So many people come into prison and leave the same way they came in. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can be a completely different person when you get out.”