By Robert Barron, Staff Writer
Enid News and Eagle
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Joe Wilson has an idea that seems to be catching on.
Wilson and a group called World Mission Builders construct chapels in prisons and now have built two in Oklahoma correctional centers with plans for a third in Alva.
The most recent project is a chapel at the women’s prison at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, built through a partnership with Oklahoma Department of Corrections. It was opened in January and dedicated Aug. 18, with speakers including Justin Jones, Department of Corrections director; Dr. Laura Pitman, deputy director of female offender operations; Leon Frost, acting warden; Leo Brown, agency chaplain; and Kathryn McCollum, Eddie Warrior Correctional Facility chaplain. Wilson also was on the program.
“The chapel was constructed in 118 days, and came in under budget and ahead of schedule,” Wilson said.
World Mission Builders brought in volunteers from six states and the local community, who joined together to build the chapel. Individuals and churches donated more than $100,000 in cash. The business community donated more than $130,000 in goods and services, and the Oxley Foundation gave a $50,000 grant to finish the prison chapel.
The chapel is built with the agreement it cannot be used for anything other than religious services and Bible study.
“A lot of the time if you build something in a prison, they are so overcrowded they use it as a dormitory. They can’t do that with these chapels,” Wilson said. “We have a written agreement with the DOC.”
Since the building at Eddie Warrior was put into service in January, attendance at services and programs has increased by 30 percent, and a waiting list for programs has been cut in half. Twice as many women are being baptized, said Chaplain Kathryn McCollum.
“When the state and people of faith join together, this is what happens. I love the partnership between DOC and the Christians who helped build this,” she said.
Mary Painter, a volunteer who teaches sex abuse recovery and other classes, said she is seeing four times as many women since the chapel opened.
“Before the chapel opened, many women who wanted to take the classes were turned away because of a lack of space,” she said.
A total of 65 to 89 percent of incarcerated women in Oklahoma have been sexually abused, an experience that has life-altering effects.
The chapel is available to people of all faiths.
The next project scheduled is a prison chapel at Bill Johnson Correctional Center in Alva. It also is a partnership between the Department of Corrections and World Mission Builders.
“The response and leadership of the Alva community has been overwhelming. The Chapel Creation Coalition, an ad hoc committee of Alva individuals and churches has been in existence a little over 90 days,” Wilson said.
The chapel has a budget of $480,000 and World Mission Builders is receiving a matching grant of $250,000 from the Share Foundation. To date, it has raised more than $108,000 from banks, businesses, churches and individuals and received more than $85,000 of in-kind value.
“Everything from the architectural service through the poured cement floor has been donated. Amazing,” Wilson said.
He said Enid attorney David Henneke, a member of the Oklahoma State Board of Corrections, provided early leadership in getting the prison chapel at Alva started.
Beginning Sept. 20 and continuing through Oct. 1 volunteers will work on the chapel project building the 6,000 square-foot chapel and visitor center at Bill Johnson Corrections Center, Wilson said.
Bill Johnson is one of Oklahoma’s newest prisons, opened about 15 years ago. The prison houses primarily young drug offenders with relatively short sentences and provides an intense boot camp education program. Much of its existing program space is being converted to bed spaces because of the increased number of offenders sent to the correctional center.
