PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: Michigan

  "I was the king of my world," David says, but "once I felt my world was coming down around me, I needed to escape somewhere."

Hope still bears the scars of her birth parents' war with addiction. Heroin and alcoholism left her childhood marked with abandonment, isolation, and worthlessness. Even after she was adopted, Hope struggled with thoughts of suicide.

With his wiry gray beard, rugged appearance, and familiar name, William “Billy” Kidd looks like someone who has stories to tell.

And he does. The former drug dealer who was once a leader of the Aryan Nation within the Michigan correctional system has spent much of his life in and out of prison, with the many tattoos covering his body chronicling his nefarious past.

A man lies awake in his prison cell at night. With no light, no company, and no chance for a restful night’s sleep, he reaches for what he does have—crochet hooks and some yarn.

By morning, he has crafted a blanket.

There are few scenes quite as serene and peaceful as an expanse of green grass, shaded by a stately oak tree. The bucolic imagery has the ability to calm and comfort, transporting people from their everyday struggles, if only for a few fleeting moments.

For Prison Fellowship Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Craig DeRoche, justice reform is more than a job, it’s a passion developed from personal experience.

At the age of 34, DeRoche was elected Speaker of the House in the Michigan State Legislature—the youngest person to ever hold that position.

“What happens after the 50th landlord tells you that you can’t rent an apartment because of your record, or the 50th employer explains that their company doesn’t hire ‘felons’?”

Christopher Poulos, executive director of Life of Purpose Treatment at the University of North Texas, asks this in a piece for The Bangor Daily News.