PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: Uncategorized

“I don’t think you and I can understand the pull of the world on these guys when they get out,” says Dan Pearson, a Prison Fellowship volunteer and a 70-year-old grandfather from Grand Rapids, Michigan. “They are like children—giddy.” But after the thrill of freedom come the challenges of reintegration.

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.

The Supreme Court ruling on Monday barring life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders offers minors another chance at life, said a prison ministry.

In a five to four vote, the high court ruled that sentencing juvenile offenders to life imprisonment without parole for crimes other than murder violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eight Amendment.

Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley discusses Out4Life, and how the program works to reduce recidivism and gives prisoners the opportunity to change their lives for the better. Click here to listen to the interview.

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?

To keep the state afloat in treacherous economic seas, Arizona has already dumped significant public programs and services overboard. But even while battered by a $2.6 billion budget deficit, we must not sacrifice public safety to the wind and the waves.

Tamlyn Ommert doesn’t go into detail about her childhood in Portland, Oregon. It was so long ago, and so much has changed in the four decades since. Her father then, she describes, was “very powerful, intimidating, controlling, and abusive.” He was also an alcoholic, with seemingly no qualms about supplying his underage daughter with samples from his supply.

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.

Knowing that God has called us to prison ministry doesn’t mean it will be a constantly joyful experience. We can get tired, discouraged, stressed, even burned out if we don’t address the warning signs soon enough.

This can be especially true of people who are typically “givers”—dedicated to helping others—and who are serving a group of people with complex and often relentless needs—such as prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families.

As volunteers in ministry with us, you hold a special place in our hearts. In the words of the apostle Paul, we consider you “our joy and our crown.” And we are committed to doing everything we can to support you and provide you with a meaningful opportunity for service in God’s kingdom.

A conference going on in Phoenix this week is working to create solutions to help keep ex-prisoners from re-entering the system.

You may squirm at the idea that a man or woman just out of prison is now living down the street. The idea that thousands of men and women are leaving prison and entering your community may disquiet you. It would be easier not to have to consider the uncomfortable issue of prisoners re-entering society.

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.

Today more than 2.3 million men and women are incarcerated in the U.S. In the last 20 years, the prison population has nearly tripled, until now one of every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

But they don’t stay there. According to the U.