In June, six women graduated from Prison Fellowship’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), an intensive faith-based program, at Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee. One of the graduates shared how participating in the program has changed her entire perspective:
“Before coming to IFI, I was a self-centered, egocentric, selfish woman.
Ron Zifer serves as the program manager for Prison Fellowship’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Texas.
Time and again I’m asked, “Where does the real change come for the men in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program?” Many want to know if there is a specific class or program really changes these men.
Ron Zifer serves as the program manager for Prison Fellowship’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Texas.
When men arrive at the Carol S. Vance Unit to participate in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, they come with a variety of horrible states of mind.
In today’s confusing society it is no wonder our children, spouses, and other family members and friends end up in trouble or even prison. Call me ‘old school,’ but throughout a large portion of a young person’s developmental years they live in this confusing world where there are no absolutes.
By the time he was 15 years old, Arthur Medina was a runaway living on the streets in Texas. It wasn’t long before he turned to crime just to survive.
Art earned his living stealing cars and running them across the border.
This past Sunday was a time of great celebration at IFI. Eighteen formerly incarcerated men returned to the Carol Vance unit to graduate before their families and other program participants.
Please pray that Steve will continue to live his life for Jesus, and that God will give him many more opportunities to point others who are still in prison to the hope that he’s found.
Thanks to Prison Fellowship partners, men and women like Fernando are experiencing bright futures!
Participants in the Pathway to Freedom program. (Photo courtesy Pathway to Freedom.)
It is an unfortunate and sad reality that we live in a world with limited resources. Sometimes that means that meaningful programs and projects are discontinued for a want of funding or manpower.
Society often discounts the contributions a former prisoner can make to his or her community, but at Prison Fellowship, we know that rehabilitated men and women who have been transformed by God have so much to offer if given the opportunity.
At Prison Fellowship, we don’t want to do ministry to prisoners. We want to do ministry with prisoners. That one little word makes a big difference. Prisoners aren’t our projects – they are our partners. As you and I walk with them on the road to restoration, men and women behind bars become leaders of the Church behind the walls … sharing the Gospel and discipling those around them, serving their families, and preparing for a new life back in the community.
By living out the core values he learned in prison, Michael is an inspiring example God's power to transform prisoners into mighty men of valor.
Kate Campbell is a summer intern with Prison Fellowship, working with Inside Journal. She is currently studying photojournalism at Boston University.
Recently, the Wisconsin State Journal published an article about a program called Reading Connections, which allows incarcerated fathers and mothers to record videos of themselves reading stories for their children.
On a recent trip to Minnesota, I visited with the ladies who are part of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) unit in Shakopee, the only women’s prison in the state. I asked them, “If you could tell the people who support this program anything, what would you say?”
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.
