Michigan Out4Life Speakers

• Patricia Caruso

• Mark Earley

• Carmelita Pope Freeman

• Joe Williams

Patricia Caruso, Director, Michigan Department of Corrections

Patricia L. Caruso is the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections which houses more than 48,000 prisoners in 43 prisons and 11 camps across the state. The field operations division of the department oversees approximately 55,000 probationers and 18,000 parolees.

Director Caruso’s focus for the Michigan Department of Corrections is on controlling prison growth and reserving expensive prison beds for the most violent and dangerous offenders. Initiatives aimed at re-thinking and re-emphasizing the use of community corrections approaches have slowed new prison commitments and reduced the number of returning technical parole violators. A major component of this effort is the Department’s recently launched Prisoner Re-entry Initiative and its emphasis on creating new collaborative approaches with public, private, state and local agencies to better prepare prisoners for release and re-entry into our communities. The goal, ultimately, will be the transition of the offender coming from the community to prison and then back to the community as a single integrated continuum.

Director Caruso joined the Department of Corrections in 1988 as assistant business manager of Kinross Correctional Facility. She served as business manager at Hiawatha Correctional Facility and as correctional facility manager for the Chippewa correctional facilities where she was in charge of facility accounting, prisoner accounting, procurement, the warehouse, prisoner stores and other business functions.

In 1991 she was named warden of the Chippewa Correctional Facility, a multi-level prison and the Straits Correctional Facility, a minimum-security prison. The facilities housed a total of 2,300 male felons. She held that position for more than nine years and in 2000 was appointed as one of three regional prison administrators for the Correctional Facilities Administration (CFA), overseeing 13 prisons and eight camps from Saginaw to the tip of the Upper Peninsula.

Prior to her appointment as Director, Caruso held the post of CFA Deputy Director.

Director Caruso also served for several years in the 1980s as chief administrative officer and controller of Chippewa County.

The Director holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from Lake Superior State University.

For more information about the Michigan Department of Corrections, visit http://www.michigan.gov/corrections.

Mark L. Earley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Prison Fellowship

Mark Earley, former State Senator and Attorney General of Virginia, became president of Prison Fellowship on February 1, 2002.

As President and CEO of Prison Fellowship, Earley oversees the national ministry founded by Charles Colson in 1976, which has since spread to 113 countries in addition to the United States.

Earley, an attorney, practiced law for fifteen years in Norfolk, Virginia, and then served in the Virginia State Senate for ten years before being elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Earley also served on the staff of the Navigators, an international evangelical ministry active on college campuses, military bases, and other settings. He worked in campus ministry at the University of the Philippines in Manila and in the U.S. at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

He is a graduate of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he received a B.A. in Religion. He earned a juris doctor degree from the William & Mary School of Law. He resides in Lansdowne, Virginia, with his wife, the former Cynthia Breithaupt. They have six children (Rachel, Justin, Mark Jr., Mary Catherine, Franklin, and Anne Harris).

Carmelita Pope Freeman, Pastor, CME Church, Louisiana District

Carmelita Pope Freeman is a volunteer chaplain, Methodist elder, leadership coach, and the Southwest Regional Director for Community Relations with the U.S. Department of Justice. She has extensive experience with law enforcement, community and faith-based organizations and is the National First Vice-President for Blacks in Government. She has degrees from Southern University and CSULA, and numerous executive teaching certifications. She received the Dallas, TX Martin Luther King “Hammer Award” and the Pasadena, CA “Woman of the Year” for her community work.

Joe Williams, Founder & CEO, New Creations Community Outreach

Joe Williams is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Creations Community Outreach, an international ministry model for serving prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. He annually hosts the nation's largest faith-based prisoner reentry conference and is the founder of the Christian Association for Prison Aftercare. He is also the author of Sheep in Wolves' Clothing: When the Actions of a Christian Turn Criminal, a gripping memoir that recounts his powerful story of redemption and transformation.