Sacred Steps: Inside an Illinois maximum security prison with a theology professor and her students

The Spiritual Edge

COVID-19 prison lockdowns prevented family and friends from visiting the nation's nearly two million prisoners; they also shut down education programs. However, at a maximum security prison near Chicago, one trail-blazing theology instructor managed to keep reaching inside. Years back, a student had encouraged Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom to think about how she could put her beliefs into practice. The result was the first master’s degree program available to incarcerated people at an Illinois prison.