Remember Those in Prison
Over the last quarter century, the number of women behind bars has increased by more than 700 percent. According to The Sentencing Project:
Half of those women were not employed full-time the month before incarceration. Nearly half had never finished high school.A new initiative in Iowa is encouraging employers to consider hiring men and women with criminal records, highlighting the positive impact such hires can have for businesses and for their communities.
The United States Attorney’s Office will be presenting a series of three workshops across northern Iowa to help assist former prisoners to find and keep employment.
The newly announced president and CEO of Prison Fellowship, James Ackerman, was recently interviewed on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. During the program, Ackerman described to host Jamie Johnson the work of Prison Fellowship, and how he came to be involved with prison ministry.
There are certain sounds that most of us associate with prisons: the metal clank of a cell door closing, the thud of heavy-booted corrections officers walking the corridors, the voices of angry prisoners echoing against the bare cement walls.
What you might not expect, however, are four-part vocal harmonies.
Roberto and I had never met before, but neither that—nor the prison regulations against physical contact with visitors—kept him from giving me a bone-crushing hug.
“I’m so thankful you are here,” Roberto said, towering over me while a grin stretched across his face.
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