Chicago lawmakers have decided it's time to take a fresh approach to counteracting all the gun violence and overflowing jails in their city. And this fresh approach starts with the young people.

Prisoners whose hearts and minds have been restored by Christ have a powerful transformation story to share, and TUMI encourages them to spread this Good News they have found. One TUMI student named Troy wrote a poem to portray how he's seen the Gospel revealed in his own life.

Last week, Ken Cuccinelli, former attorney general of Virginia, and Deborah Daniels, former assistant U.S. attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs, co-published an article on WashingtonPost.com called "Less Incarceration Could Lead to Less Crime."

Through Prison Fellowship’s faith-based life-skills classes and reentry programs, God’s people have an open door to share the hope and freedom of Christ with hundreds of thousands of prisoners. As Prison Fellowship ends the fiscal year, will you help us reach incarcerated men and women through a fiscal year-end gift? To give a gift that will prepare prisoners for success on the outside, please visit, www.prisonfellowship.org.

While most children with a parent in prison wouldn't be able to afford attending a summer camp, church sponsorships allow the kids to get away from home and leave their worries behind.

Robyn, an inmate participating in Prison Fellowship's Prisoners to Pastors program, has begun a prayer movement at her prison in California.

This week, “America ReFramed” aired its feature-length documentary on the lives of incarcerated moms: “Mothers of Bedford.”

“America ReFramed” is a television series bringing its viewers a “snapshot of the transforming American life.”  Within the last few decades the number of incarcerated women in America has more than doubled, and today, 80 percent of female inmates are biological mothers to school-aged children.

At Prison Fellowship, we see many prisoners transformed into new people with changed hearts because they've met Jesus. And when these prisoners are released into society and faced with the temptations of the free world, their new faith is often what helps them resist returning to their former way of life.

From March 5 until April 20, Kent McKeever of Waco, Texas, wore orange prison clothes each day. He wore them to the grocery store, to the movies, to run a race, and even to jury duty.

McKeever, a youth pastor and lawyer, explains why he donned prison garb throughout Lent: “Even though it wasn’t real and I could explain myself and take it off at anytime, wearing the orange prison uniform gave me an opportunity to listen to the songs of the oppressed in ways I could never hear and experience as a white male with a middle-class, professional background.”

The message of our Savior’s power is just as applicable within the prison walls as it is in our communities.

“If you could have a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?”

Unemployment rates for ex-prisoners like Cassandra and Christopher is usually about 60-75 percent. One study found that job applicants with a criminal background were 50 percent less likely to be called back or offered a position than applicants without a criminal history. But in states and counties where the box has been banned, these statistics are different. In Minneapolis, after the state of Minnesota passed the ban-the-box ordinance in 2007, the number of ex-prisoners who were able to gain employment moved from six percent up to 60 percent.

It wasn’t long before Chris found himself snowballing into an eight-year lie that would land him on the other side of the prison bars and, at the same time, propel him into a journey toward spiritual freedom.

Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the Sentencing Commission to give his endorsement for reducing prison sentencing on low-level drug offenses.

As the newly appointed executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Rick Raemisch spent the night of Jan. 23 in solitary confinement at a state penitentiary.