CPE at Metro State Women's Prison

Metro State Prison is a unique placement site for Clinical Pastoral Education. It is a maximum security facility that houses approximately 1000 women. It was constructed in 1981 in South Atlanta, and was originally built to house 750 men. In 1992, it became a women’s facility, and it is now the primary diagnostic intake facility for women in the state prison system in Georgia. Every woman who is in the state prison system passes through the back gate at Metro. Most of the women who come in through the back gate will be transferred ultimately to one of the other two prisons for women in the state. Therefore, much of the population at Metro is transient. One of the missions of the chaplaincy program at Metro is to provide pastoral care to the women who come in as “diagnostics.”

Metro serves as the high-needs medical facility for the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC). Therefore, Metro houses women who are pregnant, who have cancer and are in need of treatment, or who are in advanced stages of HIV/AIDS, as well as women who have other chronic medical conditions. Metro also serves as the high-needs mental health facility for the women’s division of the GDC. Approximately 70% of the women at Metro are on the mental health caseload.

CPE students are each assigned to a living unit at Metro. Each living unit houses approximately 160 women. The two diagnostic buildings are split up among interns, and the lockdown unit, which houses approximately 70 women, is also split up among interns. The lockdown unit, which is comprised of both solitary rooms, as well as rooms with two beds in them, houses the women with the highest mental health needs, the only female death row inmate in the state of Georgia, women who are under investigation for disciplinary problems, and women who have requested protective custody.

Students have the opportunity to help facilitate small groups such as the Chaplaincy Grief Group, and HIV Support Group, Spirituality for Young and Expectant Mothers, A Re-entry Education Group, and a Spirituality Group for the Intensive Behavioral Therapy Unit in the lockdown building. Students provide one-on-one pastoral care for women in these “parishes,” as well as providing care for women who experience crises, such as serious illness to self or family, or death of family members while incarcerated.

Chaplains are viewed as a vital part of the interdisciplinary team at Metro. Students will not only be expected to work in conjunction with the staff chaplains and volunteers at Metro, but also will have the opportunity to work with general population counselors, educators, mental health counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, security personnel, and administration at Metro State Prison.

Students are assigned to participate in several weekend-duty experiences, such as worship leadership to both the diagnostic and general population services, Saturday visitation with families of inmates, and the Children’s Center, which provides a unique ministry experience for students that enables them to interact with inmates and their children in a more relaxed setting at Metro on a monthly basis.

The CPE experience is comprised not only of pastoral care experiences, but also includes individual supervision on a weekly basis, group supervision, verbatim presentations, and didactics which will encourage students to explore how their theology, their life stories and experiences, and factors such as culture, class, race, gender, and sexuality affect how we relate and interact with peers and careseekers alike.