Prison Fellowship® is looking forward to an exciting year advancing justice reform. Here are the highlights and what to expect:
APRIL IS SECOND CHANCE MONTH!Animals. Subhuman. Unrepentant. Undeserving of mercy.
The perceptions that many people have of prisoners are harsh and unforgiving. They are formed by television and movies, augmented by the nightly news, and used by politicians seeking to sway voters that they are “tough on crime.”
Oklahoma incarcerates more women per capita than any other state: 142 per 100,000. About 65 percent of women there were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. And most of these prisoners are mothers.
Case in point: Samantha Houston-Brown.
An only child whose parents divorced when she was two, Houston-Brown—now 43 with children of her own—grew up feeling very much alone.
Rhonda Bear knows the challenges that women who have been incarcerated face as they attempt to reintegrate into society.
A former prisoner herself, Bear was fortunate to have received support and encouragement from Eileen, a volunteer who encouraged her and nurtured her Christian faith while she was still in prison.
For all the contentious, divisive issues that have recently dominated national headlines, there is one policy issue that continues to receive broad, bipartisan support—the need for meaningful sentencing and corrections reforms in the United States. And with new efforts by President Obama to highlight the need for changes, the time may be right for a significant transformation in how we view prisons and the men and women inside them.
Faced with a life sentence, Aaron could have descended into despair and hopelessness. But God called Aaron at his lowest point and prepareed him to serve.
Aaron pulled the trigger that would tear away his freedom and change the course of his life—as well as the lives of everyone he knew, even those he hadn't yet met.