We live in a broken society, but the Church is uniquely positioned to have a profound and lasting impact on the surrounding culture.
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!Join Prison Fellowship® for our Second Chances 5K runs this April in Denver and St. Paul!
“The only thing I’d ever graduated from was drug treatment. I had no training, no certifications in anything. What I did have was a very lengthy criminal history,” says Jessica Towers.
With six felonies and a scant professional résumé, Jessica wasn’t exactly set up for success as a jobseeker.
There is little debate remaining that the United States has a significant problem with the recidivism of former prisoners. Department of Justice statistics show that one-third of released prisoners are rearrested in their first year outside prison walls. Within three years, that number jumps to 50 percent, and then to 75 percent over five years.
The Albuquerque Business First journal recently asked its readers a probing question—would you hire someone who had just been released from prison?
Responses were predictably varied, with many respondents answering affirmatively. Those that did say they would hire a former prisoner typically cited the importance of second chances and a need to break the cycle of recidivism.
Statistically speaking, the Central City neighborhood in New Orleans is one of the most crime-plagued communities in the country. It has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the Crescent City, and is the most incarcerated neighborhood, in the most incarcerated parish, in the most incarcerated state per capita in the nation.