Remember Those in Prison
"The church just really loved me and took care of me. They were there to help me and didn't hold anything back."
Hope Events are one of the backbones of Prison Fellowship’s ministry—but the idea came from a corrections and civil rights leader.
Prison can be a dark place, full of corrosive influences. Prisoners who want to follow Christ must fight against a tide that threatens to push them back into old behaviors and thought patterns. Other men and women might be curious about Jesus, but, cynical about the value of “religion,” they balk at the idea of attending a chapel service.
The parking lot of the Durham (NC) County Jail is not a place most people would see as a location for religious revival, but on June 25, this unlikely setting served as the site for the baptism of 39 of the jail’s prisoners.
The North Carolina prison system announced that they will put an end to solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in the prison system. Historically, youth were placed in solitary confinement if they seriously violated prison rules.
By this September, the N.C. Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice will launch a Youthful Offender Program that will provide education, mental and behavioral health counseling, life skills classes, and family and community reunification services.
Shirley Beatty is Prison Fellowship’s field director for North Carolina and Southern Virginia. In the following article, she recounts a recent visit to the Mountain View Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, as part of the “One Day with God” program.
By the time Sgt. Joseph Serna left his position in the Special Forces, he had completed four combat tours in over two decades in Afghanistan. He had nearly been killed on three separate occasions, and received three Purple Heart awards, along with several other commendations for bravery and valor.
John Jennings stood in the courtroom, looking into the eyes of the man who had murdered his son. This man had been his son’s friend, but one night, this “friend” took John’s son into the woods, demanded his money, and shot him.
The following story is written by Jeff Freeman, a prisoner at the Pamlico Correctional Institution. It was forwarded to Prison Fellowship by Don Fulford, volunteer chairman for the Nehemiah Project, which seeks to “reach, reconcile, and restore the men at the Wake Correctional Center” in North Carolina.
Scottie Barnes (r) receives the 2014 Angel Tree Star of Victory Award from Mary Engle, Prison Fellowship’s director for the Great Lakes/Mid-Atlantic region. (Photo by Edward Weston)
Scottie Barnes knows what it is like to grow up without a father present in her life.