Imagine being transported 50 years into the future. Things that were once commonplace have disappeared, or have become quaint relics of an earlier time. In their place are new items and technologies that you don’t understand and can’t use. The food people eat and the clothes they wear are different than you remember, and at a much higher cost than before.
Across the nation—and around the world—Angel Tree parties and house deliveries are in full swing, both blessing the children and families of the incarcerated as well as leaving a mark on the volunteers that make it happen.
“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes―and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In case anyone might have missed it, we have entered headlong into the holiday season.
Beth’s dad liked to drink. Sometimes he’d drink too much and end up behind bars. He wasn’t always there when Beth needed him.
But he did something special for her while in prison—he signed up for Angel Tree.
For some students at DePaul University, going to class involves more than just walking into into a lecture hall with a cup of coffee in one hand and a laptop in the other. There are background checks to be made, interviews to be conducted, and copious amounts of paperwork that must be completed before these students are able to even enter the classroom.
On the front cover of the July/August issue of The Atlantic, a young woman with thick curly hair props her months-old son on her lap. The walls behind her are decorated with a farmyard scene. She could be anywhere. Her son's room.
This Thanksgiving, Beth will be celebrating how God has continued to transform her and use her during this year since her release.
Years of lies, greed, and misdirected ambition finally caught up to Daniel Bull in 2011.
“I was making and negotiating deals in the venture capital world for millions of dollars. I was however spending more than I made to keep an image that competed with my clients,” he explains.
UPDATE: The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Sentencing and Corrections Act of 2015 on October 22 by a vote of 15 to 5. The bill now advances to the full Senate for approval. To contact your Senator to encourage their vote in support of the legislation, click here.
Only days before the scheduled evangelistic event, a correctional officer on the yard scheduled for the event had one request for Dave Dove, Prison Fellowship Area Director in California, “Can we please not do this event?”
According to Dove, this maximum security prison in California has one of the most active gang cultures of any prison in the state.
Among the challenges facing many of the men and women returning from prison is finding a faith community where they will be welcomed, supported, and encouraged as they learn to adapt to life outside prison walls.
The Rev. Dr. Chappell Temple, pastor at Christ Methodist Church in Sugarland, Texas, has partnered with Prison Fellowship in serving the incarcerated in his community.
For men and women who have committed crimes, the biggest challenge often isn’t being incarcerated—it’s dealing with ongoing perceptions that they are, because of their past, forever tagged as “criminal” and subjected to a status that is somewhat less than human.
One of the last stops on Pope Francis’ visit to the United States was perhaps the most stark. Three days after addressing what is arguably the most influential political body in the world, the pope entered the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia to speak to an audience of about 100 prisoners and family members.
Earlier today, Pope Francis arrived in Washington, D.C. to begin a week-long visit to the United States. In addition to visits to the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the 9-11 Memorial in New York City, Pope Francis will also visit the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia.
Last Friday afternoon, Prison Fellowship’s Craig DeRoche, senior vice president of policy and advocacy, joined President Obama at the White House for a preview of HBO VICE’s upcoming special “Fixing the System,” a documentary on the current state of America’s criminal justice system and what can be done to improve it.
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