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.
“15 Years In Environment Of Constant Fear Somehow Fails To Rehabilitate Prisoner,” proclaims the headline. The subsequent article tells the story of Terry Raney, a recent parolee who has been reincarerated for assault and battery.
Albert Gunderson, warden of the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, seems baffled by Raney’s return to prison.
He was the last man you would ever expect to turn around; Julio rode with a notorious South Texas motorcycle gang. He was their “enforcer,” feared by friends and enemies alike — until Prison Fellowship introduced him to Jesus.
Julio’s story spills out in bits and pieces.
John Sims is an inmate at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo County, serving a 23-year sentence for first-degree burglary. During his time in the medium security facility, Sims has struggled with depression and hopelessness at the thought of the long years still to be served there.
If there is someone who knows the criminal justice system – from both ends – it is Bernard Kerik. A one-time beat cop in New York City’s 14th Division, Kerik rose through the ranks to serve on Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s security detail in the early 1990s.
These are difficult days to be a prison official.
As prison populations have exploded in the last decade, many departments of corrections have had to deal with budgetary cutbacks and fewer resources in their attempts to rehabilitate prisoners and to prepare them for release.
After living life behind prison walls, the first taste of freedom can be mighty sweet.
And so it was on that 20th day of September 2012 when Dana found herself climbing out of a prison van with such excitement that she let out a jubilant, “I’m free!”
In a recent edition of Inside Journal®, Prison Fellowship’s newspaper for men and women behind bars, I asked our readers this question: What should we do to make our streets safer from gun violence?
You might be thinking, What would criminals know or care about stopping violence?
The following article originally appeared on the Worldview Church website, a ministry of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview that is part of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
In Shawshank Redemption, “Red,” the character played by Morgan Freeman, calmly tells new inmate Andy Dufresne, “Haven’t you heard?
Leigh Littrell sat in the local county jail parking lot, praying her heart out. Lord, she asked, as she tried to get ready to assist teaching a class to female inmates, help me see these women through Your eyes. Give me your love for them, because I can’t do it in my own strength!
“[The] vast prison-industrial complex has succeeded in reducing crime but is a blunt instrument,” National Review columnist Rich Lowry writes in a recent online article. “Prison stays often constitute a graduate seminar in crime, and at the very least, the system does a poor job preparing prisoners to return to the real world.”
Over 50 percent of prisoners currently suffer from substance abuse addiction, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Another 20 percent either have histories of substance abuse, were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time they committed their crimes, or committed their offenses to get money to buy drugs.
Jeffery Hopper has a picture of himself and his daughter, Amanda, sitting on the couch when she was just a little girl.
“She adored me. I was her world,” Jeffery remembers. “I destroyed it by going to prison.”
“We’ll All Go Down Together”Jeffery grew up in Port Neches, Texas, where he adopted a criminal lifestyle early on.
This Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote on a rule regarding prison phone rates. The FCC is considering limiting the cost of phone calls between prisoners and their families. The meeting will be held on August 9 at 10:30 AM.
Every year, over 700,000 inmates are released from state and federal prisons across the United States. The joy of their new freedom, however, is tempered by the realization that substantial roadblocks remain to successful reintegration. The stigma of being an ex-prisoner makes it hard to find regular employment or housing, and the temptation to return to old friends and old habits is always present.