CIU Prison Initiative plays vital role in preventing inmate suicides

South Carolina inmates enrolled in the CIU Prison Initiative provide an important listening ear to fellow inmates on suicide watch. The student-inmates have become known as Health Companions who routinely check on their peers who are going through significant challenges and may be suicidal.

That’s just one ministry of the 157 CIU Prison Initiative alumni who serve as chaplain’s assistants in over 20 institutions around the state. 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.

Their important role as Health Companions caught the attention of the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper. Read the article “SC prisoners train to help prevent suicides by fellow inmates.”

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

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