Today marks 40 years since the conclusion of the deadliest prison uprising in United States history. On September 13, 1971, New York State Police stormed the “D” yard at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York, retaking the maximum security prison that had been seized by roughly 1,200 of the 2,250 inmates four days earlier.
I am in New York this week. I spent yesterday with our field staff, pastors, and partners. There is an eagerness to serve here, and our supporters are thrilled with the new focus of Prison Fellowship. “We’ve missed you,” one pastor told me.
It is estimated that at least 350,000 inmates currently in jails and prisons nationwide suffer from mental illness. It is a staggering figure, made even more sobering when one considers that the modern corrections system was not designed to deal with such inmates, and is ill-equipped to provide adequate care and treatment for them.
There are few more polarizing public figures today than Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. For every person that finds his story to be an inspiring story of redemption, there are others who find Vick unredeemable due to his conviction on charges of running an illegal dogfighting ring.
A recent article in the Western Recorder reveals the dire need for chaplains to minister in prisons. In the piece, reporters Yonat Shimron & Adelle Banks do a good job of exposing the hole that results in the prison systems when chaplains are cut from the state budget.
Like so many things in life, there is far more to Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program than buying a gift for a child of an incarcerated parent! My recent conversation with an ex-felon who is now a full-time dad proves this.
The news headline reads like a sad country song. The Nashville-based guitar maker has made news, but for a much different reason than you might suspect.
On August 24, federal agents stormed Gibson Guitar’s facilities in both Nashville and Memphis, seizing guitars, computers, and records.
For most men just getting out of prison, reentering society is a tough transition. Many have difficulty finding housing or have to deal with ongoing addictions. Just finding a stable job can be very challenging . . . unless you are a professional football player still in your prime.
“Prison is an evil place,” my friend said. “You can feel it all day, every day – a sense of discouragement and oppression. There isn’t any hope inside the walls. But after Prison Fellowship volunteers came to visit, teach, and worship the presence of Jesus – goodness and love and hope – seemed to linger in the air.
Like a scene straight from Minority Report, police departments are looking into policing based on future indicators.
Erica Goode, writing for the The New York Times, reports on predictive policing. Predictive policing is the new term for deploying officers in places where crimes are most likely to happen in the future based on several indicators.
Don Walker has walked a unique path to his current role as a volunteer Bible teacher in two Kansas prisons. It started with a 25-year career as a pastor at a Kansas City church, and developed during a short stint as a prison guard in the detention center in his hometown of Leavenworth, Kansas.
In the wake of the devastating tornado that destroyed much of Joplin, Missouri, inmates in the Missouri correctional system are doing what they can to assist those working to restore the town.
As a part of the Department of Corrections’ restorative justice program, inmates are creating “cool ties” and pillows to distribute to volunteers working amidst the rubble.
There’s a funny thing about prisons. The more people we put behind prison walls, the harder it gets to contain the consequences of incarceration practiced on such a massive scale. Since I started writing for Prison Fellowship, I’ve become more aware of those consequences, and I seem to stumble across them everywhere I turn.
Jim Liske talks with Dr. David Schuringa from Crossroad Connection about his call to serve as CEO of Prison Fellowship, and his vision for the ministry.
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We arrived at the Sanders Estes Unit in Venus, Texas and pulled into a parking lot that could have been outside hundreds of correctional institutions all over the United States. The double fence, gates, razor-wired, small slit windows, and cold heavy doors were “standard issue.”