Prison Fellowship

President and CEO

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Mark Earley had his own share of legal issues before taking the reins of Prison Fellowship^® in 2002 as president and chief executive officer.

 

Not as an offender, but as an attorney.

 

And it's given him unique insights into the kinds of people who go to prison and what can help them stay out.

 

Earley practiced law for 15 years with the Norfolk, Virginia, firm of Tavss, Fletcher, Earley, and King. His criminal defense work frequently took him to jails and prisons to meet with clients and build relationships with "men and women on the other side of the law," he says. He then served in the Virginia State Senate from 1988 to 1998, followed by a term as Attorney General of Virginia from 1998 to 2001.

 

While serving as Attorney General, Earley formed a task force on gangs and youth violence to determine how to prevent young people from succumbing to drugs and crime. In that role he visited every juvenile detention facility in Virginia, interacting personally with many of the youthful offenders. The vast majority of the kids he met had grown up without a father in the home.

 

That experience taught Earley the vital need for mentors in the lives of at-risk youth—caring adults to encourage and help guide them. By the time Earley left office, he had helped recruit 4,000 mentors throughout the state. And Earley himself was one of them, mentoring a young man in Richmond.

 

In 2001 Earley ran for governor of Virginia, losing to Mark Warner. Undaunted, Earley wrote in his journal: "I believe God has closed one door and I believe He's going to open another."

 

That new door was Prison Fellowship, which today is the leading outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. As president and CEO of Prison Fellowship, Earley oversees the national ministry founded by Chuck Colson in 1976, which has since spread to 113 countries, in addition to the United States.

 

Earley's vision has always gone far beyond simply helping prisoners get out and stay out of prison—as worthy as that goal may be. Earley believes that God is actually raising up a new generation of leaders—for the church and for the community—from behind prison walls.

 

"God delights in using the things that other people tend to discard or marginalize," he explains. "And what other group in society do people tend to cast aside and write off more than those who end up in prison? So it's just like God to use prisoners, and everybody associated with them, to turn the world upside down for Him!"

 

Earley's passion to join in God's work of transforming lives was largely honed during his 1977—1982 service on the staff of the Navigators, an international evangelical ministry active on college campuses, military bases, and other settings. He served in the 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.

 

Earley graduated from the College of William and Mary, where he received a bachelor of arts in religion. He later earned a juris doctorate from Marshall-Wythe School of Law. He and his wife, Cynthia, are the proud parents of six children.

 

Earley now leads the Prison Fellowship staff in Lansdowne, Virginia, and travels often to visit field staff across the nation, speak at events, and spread the good news of what the ministry is doing. His strong commitment to family and other biblically based values has made him a highly respected teacher and commentator, and he regularly broadcasts on radio programs "BreakPoint" and "The Point."

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Articles by Mark Earley:

• The Role of Nonprofits in the Rehabilitation of Prisoners – Criminal Justice Ethics, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2005)

• Striking Down Hope for Inmates - Washington Post, June 30, 2006