Slam dunk legend Kenny Dobbs has made a name for himself in basketball, but his passion is helping at-risk kids get on the right track.
Roxanne went through a series of "firsts"—first boyfriend, first baby, and first time trying meth.
2,500 gifts were handed out at an Angel Tree® Christmas party in Tennessee this past Saturday.
The New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro hosted a special Christmas party for prisoners and their families. Incarcerated parents were transported to the church to spend the evening with their children.
Dozens of prisoners in Florence, Arizona, just can’t wait to get up for work in the morning.
The minimum-security prisoners pair up with mustangs and burros at Florence State Prison for a unique job opportunity. In an effort to protect local rangelands and teach men behind bars a new trade, the Arizona DOC partnered with the Bureau of Land Management to form the Wild Horse Inmate Program (WHIP).
Numerous studies have indicated that prisoners have a much greater likelihood of not being re-arrested when they stay in contact with friends and family outside the prison walls. Maintaining a connection to the outside world helps to keep incarcerated men and women focused on a life to which they want to return, and keeps them from adopting a “criminal identity.”
It sounds like the setup for a new action film. Early in the morning on August 11, a bus transporting 50 prisoners from a worksite crashed into an overturned semi trailer on a remote Arizona freeway. The bus careened into the road median, the driver seriously hurt.
It was a rainy day in Phoenix when Prison Fellowship President and CEO Jim Liske became part of a human hallway. Join Jim as he recounts his experience at a volunteer event in an Arizona prison housing inmates from Hawaii. Though separated from their loved ones by many miles, these inmates learned that God’s love was always present and available to them – even in a rainy prison yard in Arizona.
I’ve been to lots of prisons, but this past week was a first: I saw the hula being doing behind bars!
I had the privilege of going to Saguaro Correctional Facility to visit inmates who are from Hawaii, but are doing their time in Arizona.
Initially, Tony Torrez wasn’t sure if prison ministry was his calling. He didn’t know how he would connect with the prisoners and felt he was already making a difference in the homeless community. However, after a volunteer at the Arizona State Prison at Winslow persuaded him to come to an orientation, he couldn’t say no to becoming involved.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of prisoners who otherwise couldn’t provide Christmas gifts for their children do so through Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program. In 2012, some Arizona prisoners decided to give back—in the amount of $3,300.
La Palma Correctional Center, a prison privately operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, houses 3,100 men in several compounds.
Meeting Santa at the Angel Tree Christmas party. (Photo by Kathy Marvin / Sierra Vista Herald)
Around the country, Angel Tree coordinators and volunteers are busy displaying the love of God to prisoners and their families as they prepare for Christmas.