As You Would Welcome Me

The waiter came to take their orders. One by one, his friends ordered. Nolan grew flustered. He could not decide. His face began to burn with embarrassment. After two years of prison, where all choices were made for him, an ordinary decision like ham, pastrami, or roast beef had become altogether overwhelming. To save face, Nolan ordered the first thing his eyes fell on: turkey. He didn’t even want turkey. Suddenly he understood how even in the most mundane details of life, a prison term takes its toll.

Today Nolan serves as president of Justice Fellowship, a branch of Prison Fellowship dedicated to criminal justice reform. Experiences like his deli dilemma and countless other struggles as an ex-offender have given Nolan sympathy for the plight of prisoners and their families and for the overwhelming need to help prisoners as they return.

In his 2004 book, When Prisoners Return, Nolan comprehensively addresses the various issues involved in the care of prisoners after they have been released, not only a vital aspect of prison ministry, but also an important calling that ordinary Christians and the church as a whole must face.

Nolan gently reminds readers of the firm biblical grounding we have been given to care for the prisoner. One intriguing text he offers is the often overlooked book of Philemon. According to Nolan, “The apostle Paul’s entire letter to Philemon is a request for help for a prisoner returning home. Writing from inside a prison in Rome, Paul asks his friend Philemon to welcome Philemon’s former slave, Onesimus, who apparently had stolen from him and then escaped.” Paul urges Philemon to “welcome [Onesimus] as you would welcome me”(Philemon 1:17). Likewise, Nolan encourages his readers to welcome returning prisoners with the love of Christ—a love that can be both firm and tender. Throughout the book, readers get both the divine motivation and the practical, physical steps to take action toward furthering God’s kingdom.

If the spiritual motivations are not reason enough, Nolan also offers staggering statistics that show how crucial it is to address society’s failure to integrate ex-offenders back into society. He reminds us that over half a million prisoners return each year. At the current rate, two-thirds of them will be rearrested within three years, and half of them will return to prison. With the costs of prison-building and maintenance continuing to rise, society has no other choice but to find a better way to keep these men and women from re-offending. And Nolan offers countless practical steps and organizational resources to help the church do exactly that.

Nolan asserts that one of the best ways to help rehabilitate a prisoner is through one-on-one mentoring. Volunteer mentors can teach prisoners about their responsibility to their community, family, and employers while providing them with biblical reasons for this responsibility. Mentor relationships are usually set up while the prisoner is still on the inside. The mentor and prisoner study the Bible together, and the mentor helps hold the prisoner accountable as he grows in his walk with the Lord. The mentor is there when the prisoner walks out of the prison, ready to help the prisoner with the practical transitional issues he faces. The prisoner then has someone he can count on to get him through this difficult period.

Studies have shown over and over again that the first few days, or even hours after release are the time when a prisoner is very likely to be rearrested. After all, imagine the plight of someone who has just gotten off the bus from prison with nowhere to sleep and nowhere to earn money. He’s returning to a neighborhood where very likely the people he knows are the very people who will sway him back to a life of crime. It seems obvious that survival dictates an almost gravitational pull back into old habits of crime. This is why the church has to do everything it can to forge a sense of establishment in for re-entering prisoners.

Mentors can help with that sense of permanence and belonging, but the church can also be involved in helping with this need. Nolan suggests that churches partner with local affordable housing organizations and find potential employers inside and outside the congregation for released prisoners. Ex-offenders will also need help writing resumes, getting to and from job interviews, and people who are willing to vouch for them to potential employers. Members of congregations can provide basic needs like emergency food and clothing, addressing physical needs even as they give the returning prisoner a sense that he is welcome in the community.

But, as Nolan describes, there is also a less obvious issue of crime, and a duty we have to repair it. Crime damages the victim and surrounding community, and in order for those wounds to be healed, some form of reconciliation often needs to take place. Our justice system sees crime as an offense against the state, not the victim, and this leaves many problems unsolved when fighting crime. Who will comfort victims of crime? Where will victims get physical assistance for the damage that has been done to them or their property? What if the crime causes emotional instability in the victim? How will the community repair the broken sense of security and trust?

The church can help answer all of these questions. Physical, emotional, and especially spiritual support for the victim can come from the church. Nolan says that emphasis should be laid particularly on assuring the victims that they did not deserve the crime committed against them. Another good step to take is to get ex-offenders involved in community service projects to improve their community. This will help the offender to repair some of the damage that was done to the community, or to the relationships within the community. While this will never directly repair the damage done by crime, it is a visible sign to the community that released prisoners are vested in the well- being of the community and contributing as good citizens.

When Prisoners Return reminds us of a problem that Jesus commands us to engage. Nolan gives us the resources to get started. It’s easy for us to look at prisoners and smugly think that they are getting their just desserts. We can too easily shrug our shoulders. But the fact is, we all deserve much worse than prison. Though many of us will never face incarceration, we have all offended against God’s perfect law. Side by side we stand as offenders saved by God’s grace. Pat Nolan gives us the opportunity to share this grace as prisoners return.