PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: Feature Stories

It was Christmas 2011 – my dad’s last Angel Tree, though we didn’t know it at the time. Max and my dad and I shopped together for gifts – the little girl on the angel wanted a razor scooter and a pair of sneakers.

When a prisoner is locked up, the world he leaves behind does not stand still. Nor does his family. During the prisoner’s absence, roles shift, children grow, and emotional and financial hardships are endured. Even when the sentence ends, the prisoner and his family can never go back to the status quo that existed before prison, no matter how much they would like to.

If you’re new to prison ministry or have a loved one doing time, where do you turn? The average bookstore lacks a shelf devoted to “prison issues.” That’s why BreakPoint and The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview have added a new section to their online bookstore, chockfull of resources devoted to the concerns of prison ministers and prisoners’ families.

Periodically Frontlines will feature a book recommended by Prison Fellowship staff as a resource for your ministry to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. In this issue we highlight TrueFaced, written by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch.

  Most of us have an assortment of masks we put on when we feel the need to hide our real selves.

What does it really take to keep a person from going back to prison? Let’s see. Resources that work, perhaps faith and prayers, a change in peers or environment, and, most important of all, the willingness and commitment of the offender to do what it takes to make that change.

Like many states, South Carolina faces a huge budget deficit. Will it be business as usual for the state, or will state leaders think outside the box?

Prison Fellowship launched a movement this week in one of the most dangerous states in the country to keep former inmates out of prison for life.

Out4Life was launched in Arizona which has the sixth highest incarceration rate among the 50 states and where one in 33 adults is under correctional control.

Michigan’s prison system has undergone a culture change from locking up law breakers for as long as possible to being more selective about whom to put behind bars, state Corrections Director Patricia Caruso told officials at a prisoner re-entry conference Tuesday.

Aaron pulled the trigger that would tear away his freedom and change the course of his life—as well as the lives of everyone he knew, even those he hadn't yet met.

When Tony Hall first met Mother Teresa, she took his solid left hand in her frail one. “I want you always to remember something,” she urged the U.S. congressman from Ohio. And as she gently folded each of his fingers, she accentuated, “For .

Most of the men and women behind bars have a history of drug or alcohol abuse. This means that the family members they left behind—and will likely return to—have also been hammered by their loved one’s addiction. If you minister to prisoners’ families, here’s an outstanding resource to help them in their own recovery as they seek to help their loved one.