Agency building chapel at Greenwood's women's prison
Posted: 03.25.2010 at 6:13 AM

GREENWOOD (AP) -- Women in one of Greenwood's maximum security prisons are getting a new place to worship.

The Department of Corrections is breaking ground on Thursday on a new chapel at Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood.

Officials say the new facility will give the inmates space to worship and hold programs that have been limited to the prison's visitation room.

Only 16 of the state's 28 prisons currently have chapels. Earlier this month, prisons officials broke ground on a new one at the maximum security men's prison in McCormick.

About 100 inmates at that prison began living in a faith-based dormitory in January. Volunteers come into the prison to teach the men classes on personal responsibility, addiction treatment and parenting.

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