It’s true. Among graduates of Columbia International University’s Prison Initiative the recidivism rate is zero percent. That’s phenomenal when you consider that a recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed 68 percent of inmates released from prison were re-arrested within three years.

Each year about a dozen student-inmates graduate from CIU with an accredited Associate of Arts degree they earn while studying in cohorts at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, just across the Broad River from CIU’s main campus. The graduates then become chaplain’s assistants in the South Carolina prison system. A total of 157 CIU Prison Initiative alumni serve in over 20 institutions around the state.

The success of the CIU Prison Initiative caught the attention of Break Point, a ministry of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

Read about it in the article “Restoring All Things,” by Warren Cole Smith, vice president at the Colson Center.

Learn more about the CIU Prison Initiative and how you can be involved.

Columbia International University ranks #1 among colleges and universities in South Carolina by BestColleges.com. Excitement is growing on campus with CIU’s first baseball program in development and online with CIU’s new Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. Request information on enrollment at CIU and Columbia Biblical Seminary or call (800) 777-2227, ext. 5024.