Master of Professional Studies

(Offered only in Sing Sing Correctional Facility)

The NYTS Master of Professional Studies (MPS) is a one-year 36-credit graduate degree offered in Sing Sing Correctional Facility for persons who are currently incarcerated within the New York State Correctional System. This accredited degree is one of the most unique programs in theological education in North America today. NYTS has been offering the MPS at Sing program since 1982. During that period, over 400 candidates have graduated. Many have gone on to distinguish themselves in leadership both locally and nationally upon release, while many others continue to serve faithfully without wide recognition behind bars within the New York State Correctional System. The degree is one of the Seminary’s signature accomplishments. It is also the Seminary’s only residential program.

Candidates for the MPS degree must be currently within the New York State Correctional System. Prospective candidates who apply and are accepted are transferred by New York State to Sing Sing if they are not already in residence there. Those who are accepted into the program must agree to forgo week-day visits for one year due to the intensive demands of classes and study (five days a week in classes with additional work each evening in Supervised Ministry and other activities). Candidates must also pledge themselves to be of service to their fellow prisoners as long as they remain incarcerated.

Students in the program attend classes five days a week from 9 a.m. to 12 noon from September through May. Afternoons are devoted to further independent study, while evenings are taken up with Supervised Ministry assignments and other activities. The curriculum is designed to provide candidates with the basic courses in theological education, including biblical studies, ministry studies, history, theology and ethics; but to do so in ways that are relevant to the context of prison, emphasizing spiritual integration, community accountability, and service to others. Upon completion of the program, a special graduation service is held on the second Wednesday of each June in which members of the NYTS board and faculty are joined by friends of the program, members of the Department of Corrections, and the families and friends of the graduates to celebrate the individual and collective accomplishment of yet another class.

Graduates from the program are typically assigned to one of the state prisons throughout New York where they can serve as chaplain assistants, peer-counselors, teachers, and other such positions. Of the more than 150 graduates that have now been released, many have continued to serve in ministry or in non-profit services. Released graduates have gone on to serve as pastors of congregations, as staff members and directors of non-profit organizations, on boards of organizations such as the Fortune Society, as educators, in the private sector, and as public leaders in the national re-entry movement. Several have been featured in documentary films or on various national news programs. A number of other educational and service programs inside the New York State Correctional System, including Hudson Link, a non-profit organization providing an accredited undergraduate degree in several correctional facilities within New York State, have grown up from the seeds planted by the NYTS MPS program and its graduates.

NYTS receives no tuition or fees from students in this degree program, and receives no state aid beyond the cost of accommodating students and providing suitable housing for the degree program (classroom space, a computer room, and a small reading library room within the chaplaincy area at Sing Sing). All costs for the program are raised annually through donations from individuals, churches, and foundations. The Seminary thanks those donors who have so generously over the years helped to keep this program alive and well.

Learning Competencies

The MPS seeks to prepare candidates who are:

• informed biblically and theologically, and in the historical development of Christian thought and tradition
• skilled in the practice of ministry for personal, ecclesial and social transformation
• committed to the call of the Gospel for reconciliation, justice, evangelism and transformation
• centered in a spiritual tradition which is dynamic in its formation and open to God’s continuing revelation
• skilled in the practice of ministry within their immediate contexts, committed to their own faith and tradition, and global and inclusive towards diverse religions and denominations
• equipped to create organizations, ministries, and/or programs that lead to the betterment of their immediate communities inside the prison system and for life beyond bars

Admissions Requirements

Candidates for the MPS must

• possess a BA or BS degree, or the equivalent (120 undergraduate credits) from an accredited four-year college
• demonstrate evidence of an ability to do graduate level study
• be able to articulate an understanding of their call to ministry in a manner that is appropriate to their own experience and faith tradition
• meet institutional requirements set by New York State Department of Corrections
• have two strong recommendations, including one from a prison chaplain

Application, Acceptance, and Enrollment

Due to the unique location and circumstances under which this degree is offered, the application, acceptance, and enrollment process requires several steps.

Applications for the MPS program are available throughout New York State Correctional System through the offices of the chaplains, and from the Director of Prison Programs at NYTS. Applications are not found online as persons who are incarcerated do not have access to the internet. Applications are due by February 1 of each year for admission into the program for the following September. Completed applications are to be mailed or forwarded to the:

Director of Prison Programs
New York Theological Seminary
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 500
New York, New York 10115
(212) 870-1211

After an initial review of an application to check for completeness, the Director of Prison Programs forwards a list of all applicants’ name to Deputy Superintendent of Programs at Sing Sing, New York State Correctional Services Educational Department, and Department of Corrections Classification and Movements, who must all approve the candidate before the application can be considered. The approval process is generally completed within two month. NYTS can only admit candidates who have been approved by all three departments.

Final decisions regarding admission are then made by the Director and Admissions Committee at NYTS. Up to 15 candidates are admitted annually, who are transferred to Sing Sing (if not already there) during the month of August to begin the program the first week of September.

The Curriculum

The MPS is a 36-credit degree with a fixed curriculum that includes biblical studies (First and Second Testament), theology, history, ethics, and mission and ministry studies. Students work together throughout the year in a common classroom, with different professors coming in each day during the fall and spring semesters or for month-long intensives in January and May. Community building through the classroom experience and project development and implementation are integral aspects of the program. While several of the courses in areas of mission and ministry are designed specifically to meet the unique needs of candidates serving within a correctional system, all courses in the program seek to engage the students in ways that are relevant to prison ministry, with emphasis placed upon spiritual integration, community accountability, and service to others. Like all programs at NYTS, the MPS curricular design reflects a commitment to the integration of theory and practice. Critical thinking and reflection upon experience are central to the MPS program.

Five courses are offered each semester, and one course in each intensive month. In addition, each student must enroll and complete Supervised Ministry each semester. Semester-long courses are offered for 3 credits each, while intensives and Supervised Ministry are 2 credits each. Candidates who fail to complete a course within any semester are unable to graduate, and are removed from the program. The courses offered in the MPS program are: First Testament; Second Testament (with Exegesis); Introduction to Theology; Church History; Religion and US American Society; Religious Ethics; Foundations of Ministry; Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling; Program Administration, Organization and Design; Foundations of Religious Education; Preaching; Community Building and Personal Responsibility.

Additional Resources

Textbooks. NYTS provides all textbooks and photocopies of all additional assigned readings for all courses at no cost to the students. Textbooks are ordered by the Director and shipped in directly from publishers or the Seminary’s designated book store at Columbia University. Assigned readings are mailed in bulk packages into the facility well enough in advance of classes to allow for them to be processed and distributed to candidates in the degree program. Individual study Bibles for students in the program are donated annually by the Massachusetts Bible Society, and a number of publishers provide textbooks at low or no cost. Students are
allowed to keep textbooks when they graduate, making their selection a valuable part of the overall process of preparing them for effective leadership within the correctional system.

Student Services. Students in the MPS program have ongoing contact with and access to the Director of the Program, who holds office hours 3-4 days a week and is on call at all other times. Students also have contact with and access to the various supervisors within Sing Sing with whom they are assigned to work during the course of each semester. There is a Catholic chaplain, a Protestant chaplain, a Jewish rabbi, and a Muslim imam available to the students within Sing Sing, and various other outside religious counselors or chaplains who are allowed to come in and meet with candidates. The NYTS Director offers additional support in terms of medical and counseling referrals.

Supervised Ministry Sites. Supervised Ministry is a key component of the MPS program. Several ministries are in place within Sing Sing, including mental health care, General Education Diploma (GED) tutoring, Youth Adolescent Prevention Programs (YAP), and ministries with youth at risk. MPS graduates from previous classes are often already working in these programs within Sing Sing, creating a peer-learning community within the program itself.

Library services. NYTS maintains a small collection of reference works and computers with Bible software in a reading area adjacent to the NYTS classroom in the Sing Sing chapel area. Sing Sing has an additional library of approximately 25,000 volumes, mostly related to law, but with some general resources in maintains areas of liberal arts. In cases where a book is not available through these two libraries resources, students can request it from the Department of Corrections through interlibrary loan, and the book will be sent to them at Sing Sing usually within two weeks from another library within the Department of Corrections. Students do not have access to online resources or the internet due to prison regulations.

Community Life. Community life is built into the academic program at Sing Sing. Students take courses together during the entire year. Regular opportunities are provided for community prayer, Bible studies, worship, and personal sharing. A two-week orientation similar to an extended retreat takes place at the beginning of each year. Weekly group sessions and individual counseling sessions are available to those who request and need them. Finally, the curriculum includes preparation and counseling for re-entry as an integral part of the overall program. Successful re-entry starts long before a person leaves prison. The MPS incorporates this philosophy into its curriculum.

Community Resources or Involvement. Each student in the NYTS MPS program at Sing Sing is required to make a contribution to the greater community at least once each semester, and to share their contributions with the rest of the class. Students hold a fundraiser each year involving the entire population to help send children with HIV to summer camp (inmates in New York State receive 50 cents a day as wages for work that they do inside the facility such as sweeping or emptying trash; the collection that is taken up comes mostly from the savings inmates make from these daily wages). The MPS students also sponsor a food drive for the homeless who are beyond prison bars, collect non-perishable canned goods from the general population (about 30 bags annually) that are then sent to food pantries in nearby areas.

The MPS holds partnerships with several churches, including the First Presbyterian Church of Ossining and Rye Presbyterian Church. The program likewise partners with the Prison Educational System, through which inmates can earn their high school diploma, learn to read and write, and can receive a GED; and Hudson Link, a non-profit organization providing an accredited undergraduate degree in several correctional facilities within New York State. Hudson Link and other educational programs within the New York State Correctional System employ graduates of the NYTS MPS program as teachers and counselors throughout the state, providing opportunities for the students to put their graduate degree to use in peer education.

For further information on the MPS program at Sing Sing, including information concerning visiting the program or attending graduation on the second Wednesday evening of each June, and on how to help support the program with a donation or gift, contact:

Director of Prison Programs
New York Theological Seminary
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 500
New York, NY 10115
(212) 870-1211