PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: In-Prison Stories

Create: New Beginnings is giving prisoners—and Prison Fellowship staff—a chance to experience God’s provision. “The weekend at Shakopee was a success … God was there, and He showed us His presence every minute.”

Raised by a drug dealer, Oscar had a wild childhood on the streets before he was incarcerated. After living under the influence for years, could Oscar become a positive leader in his community?

Drugs and fraud sent Brittany to prison, but God was waiting for her. “Prison would set the stage for the rest of my life,” she shares. Read on to discover how God redeemed Brittany from her past and gave her hope for the future.

Gilbert was raised in church but lived a double life as a gang member and drug dealer. When he was 21, his dealer turned on him. Betrayed, Gilbert’s world crumbled around him. Could his foundation in Christ give him a second chance?

A champion bareback rider and a wild horse named Sushi share the Gospel with Kentucky prisoners.

For most of his life, Josiah steered clear of “crazy” Christians who “make no sense,” just like his Wiccan parents told him to. But in prison, he encountered a "presence" he couldn't explain away.

Things run a little differently at Minnesota Correction Facility—Shakopee. Here, female prisoners engage in community and in-prison programing like the Prison Fellowship Academy.

“I can never make the day of the accident vanish as if it didn’t exist. It happened. But I can be restored.” Amy, a Prison Fellowship Academy graduate, reveals what happened when she stopped running from God and finally began to grow.

  If you had told Tino 30 years ago that one day he would be a devout Christian, he would have been shocked. But that’s the transformative power of God’s love.

Tammy Franklin has come full circle. A former prisoner, she is now a Prison Fellowship Academy manager at the same facility in which she was incarcerated.