Last week’s Justice Fellowship e-newsletter featured some encouraging data from a recent study on prison visitation and recidivism. Pat Nolan writes that the research essentially proves the “basic premise on which Prison Fellowship was founded: that visiting prisoners can significantly improve their reintroduction to the community after their release.”
More from Nolan on the Minnesota Department of Corrections research:
One facet of this study jumped out at me as I read it – the two types of visits that had the greatest impact on reducing recidivism: clergy and mentors, which have been at the heart of Prison Fellowship’s work for over 35 years. We have done this because Jesus told us to visit prisoners in Matthew 25. However, we now have research that shows our faithful volunteers are having a significant impact on the lives of the inmates and on our communities by making them safer….
This study points out a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in these inmates’ lives. What if they were offered the chance to have a visit from a potential mentor? Not all would take advantage of it, but for those who wanted, it would offer them the hope of making a successful transition once they left prison. What a difference in the crime rate that could have!
Pat and Justice Fellowship continue to work to ensure visitations rights are encouraged and protected. For more information about this study, please go here. And if you feel like God is calling you to make a difference in the life of a prisoner and a prisoner’s family, look for ways to get involved on a national and local level here.