PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG

It’s only been five years since Gloria’s daughter was sentenced to prison for the negligent homicide of Gloria’s then 18-month-old granddaughter, but the despair she once felt is slowly melting into hope as she sees the small ways that God is redeeming the terrible.

T. J. has been volunteering inside the Carol S. Vance Unit in Richmond, Texas, for about five years. The time spent behind the walls there has been life-changing.

“I can’t tell you what a wonderful experience this has been for me,” T.

I visit prisons frequently, and rarely do I feel uncomfortable. When the prison staff will permit it, I shake hands with and even embrace incarcerated men without fear. But one recent experience left me feeling shaken.

After a worship service in a prison auditorium, I was taken to F Block, a multi-tier roundhouse where the prison’s most violent and hardened residents are kept.

When many Americans enter their 50s and 60s, they start looking toward retirement—that season of life when there is freedom to travel, spend extra time with the grandkids, or devote more hours to volunteering or pursuing a dream. But for those growing older behind bars, the graying years don’t look much different than all the rest—just that they are spent with increased dependency and cost to the prison system.

We were being watched.

At a worship service behind bars, I was sitting among some men that I remembered from a previous visit. I was jarred out of the music by the realization that officers armed with rifles were standing watch in “guard shacks” that extended from the walls of the auditorium.

It sounds like the setup for a new action film.  Early in the morning on August 11, a bus transporting 50 prisoners from a worksite crashed into an overturned semi trailer on a remote Arizona freeway.  The bus careened into the road median, the driver seriously hurt.

In the very first month in his official capacity, Pope Francis made a landmark visit to a juvenile detention facility where he washed and kissed the feet of youth. During his upcoming visit to the U.S., he will be visiting a prison again, this time in Philadelphia.

The Baltimore City Detention Facility has a well-earned reputation for being one of the worst jails in the United States.  

Jake Grant is an intern working with Justice Fellowship, the policy arm of Prison Fellowship.  A version of this post appears on the Justice Fellowship website.

Five years ago, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) of 2010. The law lowered sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine and eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession of crack cocaine.

Roberto and I had never met before, but neither that—nor the prison regulations against physical contact with visitors—kept him from giving me a bone-crushing hug.

“I’m so thankful you are here,” Roberto said, towering over me while a grin stretched across his face.

As the wildfires raging through much of California continue to stretch the abilities and resources of professional firefighters, assistance is coming from an unexpected source—men in the California corrections system.

Nearly 4,000 prisoners have joined forces with roughly 6,000 firefighting professionals in an attempt to tame the fires that have burned 117,960 acres so far, and threaten thousands of homes and businesses.