PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Reentry

On a recent trip to Michigan, I approached a man that I thought was our local Prison Fellowship field director. I hugged him and thanked him for all he was doing.

When I asked how he was, he said, “I’ve been out for three months, and I am an associate pastor!”

The following is a version of remarks given by Prison Fellowship President and CEO Jim Liske at Movement Day NYC, a gathering of Christian leaders discussing how to cultivate Gospel movements in urban areas across the country.  For more information about Movement Day, visit www.movementday.com.

Ron and Phil sat side-by-side on a platform, sharing about the decades that their life stories have intertwined. The journey began when Ron, then a drug addict desperately seeking cash, shot and killed Phil’s father.

After Ron pulled the trigger, he went to prison.

I first met Emily two years ago, at the start of her sentence for drug trafficking and assault. Nineteen years old and thin, she hardly looked capable of the crimes for which she had been sentenced. Her demeanor, too hardened for her years, masked the vulnerability of a little girl.

Katherine Thompson recently served as a policy intern with Justice Fellowship.  A version of the following article originally appeared on the House of Margaret Thatcher website, and is used here with permission.

If I could attend church in prison every week, I would.

A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts provides new evidence suggesting that the increased incarceration rates over the last three decades for drug offenses have done little to reduce crime and recidivism.

The study, “Federal Drug Sentencing Laws Bring High Cost, Low Return,” examines the effects of “tough on crime” legislation passed in the 1980s and 1990s.  

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.

The community reentry team connected Albert with Paving the Way, one of Prison Fellowship's reentry partners that helps former prisoners in their search for employment.

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.

Denise Harris is the field director for Prison Fellowship in Detroit, Michigan.

On a beautiful summer day, nearly 70 former prisoners, mentors, and Prison Fellowship staff descended upon the rolling hills of the Colombiere Conference and Retreat Center in Clarkston, Michigan, for a day they’d never forget.