One of Jesus’ central lessons, and arguably his most powerful, is encapsulated in a deceptively simple statement: “I was in prison, and you visited me.”

For generations, Christian leaders have interpreted that passage from Matthew 25 as an obvious call to look after the least of us, including the incarcerated. At Duke Divinity School, however, a 15-year-old program sharpens the lesson: It brings together divinity students from an elite private university and people serving time in prison. 

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The incarcerated, however, aren’t being ministered to. They are fellow students, teachers, and theologians. 

Mutual Transformation

What began as a prison ministry initiative at Duke University Divinity School in 2011 has evolved into one of the most distinctive theological education programs in the nation. 

Called Project TURN, the program has transformed incarcerated participants, broadened the vision of future pastors, and deepened the knowledge of divinity school professors. Participants say it transforms drab prison classrooms into sacred spaces where learning flows and redemption is more than a sermon topic.

“They’re all fellow learners,” says Edgardo Colón-Emeric, dean of Duke Divinity School. “It’s not that one group has all the wisdom. It’s not that the professors do or that the incarcerated people do. Everyone is learning together.” 

The program also reflects a longstanding tradition within the Black church and other faith communities that have historically understood ministry as presence, venturing to hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, or correctional facilities. 

Beyond the Bible

According to its website, Project TURN brings together roughly 10 full-time seminary students and 10 incarcerated individuals to study theology, ethics, and Christian history together inside correctional facilities. The program also offers courses on restorative justice and an opportunity to do prison ministry or work with a prison-oriented nonprofit. 

Students meet regularly, participate in reflection circles, and build community through shared learning experiences. While assignments vary by course, the deeper curriculum is relational: participants learn empathy, humility, and the discipline of listening across vastly different life experiences.

Project TURN traces its roots to Bishop Ken Carter, a former member of the Duke faculty and a leader in the United Methodist Church. Emeric says Carter spent decades combining parish and prison ministry, and believed future pastors should be as familiar with the inside of a prison as the corridors of a hospital or retirement community.

The program brings together Duke students pursuing theological degrees and incarcerated students pursuing a certificate in prison studies. They sit together in the same classrooms, read the same materials, engage in communal discussions, and follow the same curriculum. 

‘Friends for Life’

In a video testimonial about the program on Duke’s website, Kimberly Brown, a former divinity student and one of Project TURN’s first participants, described it as life-changing. 

“It’s a program that should be in every prison,” said Brown, who now runs OnInmate.com. “It will bring about self-awareness and let you know who you really are inside. Nine times out of 10, if you participate fully, [the incarcerated students] will be friends for life.”

Elia Zonia, another Project TURN participant who received her divinity degree in 2026, agreed. In an Instagram post, she wrote about how the conversations she had with different students remain relevant, and brought insight to a group often overlooked.

“Hearing from my inside classmates brought into focus just how much we as a society miss when we refuse to listen to a large group of people,” she wrote. 

Ignored No Longer

That reciprocity may be Project TURN’s most radical feature.

Though incarcerated people are typically defined by their worst mistakes, the program puts them and divinity students on equal footing. Students, prisoners and faculty encounter one another through scripture, theology, ethics, history, and lived experience.

Colón-Emeric said the program has had a profound impact on everyone involved. He said professors frequently describe teaching in the program as the most meaningful educational work of their careers.

Those outcomes were never guaranteed. The initial goals were to expose future church leaders to communities society often ignores; along the way, some Duke students decided to incorporate prison visitation and ministry into their vocational plans. Others had family members who experienced incarceration and wanted to understand what they had experienced.

‘Prison To Divinity School’

The program offers incarcerated students intellectual challenges, spiritual formation, and a pathway to future education. Some have enrolled in Duke Divinity School after their release — an outcome Colón-Emeric  jokingly describes as a “prison-to-divinity-school pipeline.”

Programs built around prison education often struggle to survive funding challenges, institutional changes, and logistical barriers. Yet after the better part of two decades, Duke University continues to support the initiative, largely because faculty, students, and administrators have witnessed its transformative power firsthand.

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Project TURN asks a similar question of theological education: What happens when future pastors encounter Christ in unlikely places?

Colón-Emeric finds the answer in Matthew 25. The program’s foundation rests on the conviction that those encounters are  central expressions of Christian discipleship, not optional add-ons to ministry.