In 2002, my ministry (then known as Apostolic Fellowship International Ministries) began publishing what would become Power For Today Magazine. Back in those days, it was a simple six-page newsletter. It was printed without frills, mostly written by myself (we didn’t have a guest column at that time). It was a basic update newsletter, informing people about things going on at our church with featured articles based on sermons I would preach. Wow, it was hard getting started. People were irate, refusing to receive it, calling and yelling at me with disrespectful tones. Nobody wanted to help with the work. I had trouble maintaining a regular mailing list, and worried it would go absolutely nowhere.
In response, I started calling in all the reserves. I looked up people I had gone to school with, people from the old neighborhood, and anyone and everyone I could possibly think of who might be touched by receiving that newsletter. Through the process, I discovered a lot about people I knew at different points in my life. Some went to college, some were working, some moved, some had families, and a few had married. Many stayed local.
Then there were those who were in the police blotter or had gone on to serve time in prison. It was through these individuals I learned the importance of prison ministry.
They were in prison…
Some names I found in the police blotter weren’t a huge surprise. I remembered them causing trouble way back when, as if in elementary school and junior high I could have had that kind of premonition. Most of the arrests were uniform: public intoxication, trespassing, possession of marijuana or other drugs, drunk driving, minor assault, or traffic violations. None of them were close friends of mine, but it felt relevant to see the mix of names splashed in the blotter. They were individuals both favored by teachers and those deemed to failure alike. Some were seen as heading for trouble, and others who slipped under that radar. All in all, it was an interesting statement on the fact that as much as people might like to believe, good grades and kissing up to authority do not equate to a lack of trouble later on in life.
Then there were the three I found who went to prison for real, rather than just facing arrest. I knew these three quite a bit better than the other general names that graced the police blotter.
The one with drug charges
One I found because I sent him a copy of our newsletter. I received a reply, with the return address as a correctional facility in a nearby county. Through a series of letters, I learned he was involved in a drug sting and arrested for cocaine possession. When we last spoke, he was facing up to seven years due to state drug laws. After he transferred to a different facility, I didn’t hear from him again while he was in jail.
We would follow each other online later in time. By this time, I’d been in ministry for a few years and was working with a halfway house in Kentucky. I discovered he was in and out of jail over the years, and was seriously addicted to drugs. Eventually, he died due to drug-related medical conditions.
The one with sexual assault charges
When I was in junior high, my first boyfriend’s best friend was also my friend. I knew him better than most of the people I went to school with. I’d been to his house, socialized with him, and my mom and sister worked with his grandmother. Everything I’d heard of him for the first few years after graduation was positive. That all changed when I discovered he was arrested for attempting to sexually assault a college student. He must have been released because a few years later, he was arrested for breaking and entering. I didn’t keep up with him as long as my other former classmate, but I do believe last I knew he’d moved out of the area and eventually had a baby with a girlfriend.
The one with drug court
Then there was the girl who lived down the street once upon a time. She and her sister were my very best friends. I definitely thought of them, at least for a period of time, as the sisters I didn’t have. I remember the hours we spent at each other’s houses, the times we spent playing, and the fun that we had. At the end of fifth grade, their mom moved to Alabama to go to school and took both girls with her. Even though we had a falling out before they left, they were good friends to me.
From time to time, I’d run into this girl when she came home to visit her dad. Eventually she moved back to the area, and we discovered this because she was doing community service for a drug program. She was arrested several times for different things. By the time my mom met up with her again, she was in drug court. She would eventually find her way to a correctional institute for women about two hours from where we were from. I tried contacting her from time to time, with no luck. Last I knew, she did finally get herself together. She got married, had a few children, and started her own business somewhere out west.
Why prison ministry matters
I developed interest in prison ministry because of these encounters. Like many, I assumed people always went to prison because they did something to “deserve” it. I had no idea what being in prison or jail was like. It was an impersonal system, one whose flaws were easy to overlook. Sure, it might not have always been fair, but the system was always just, right?
Wrong.
I had to firsthand see people I knew struggle through the system to realize how important prison ministry is.
I was in prison and you came to Me. (Matthew 25:36, ESV)
Why would this be something Jesus specifically mentioned as a divine command? There are so many things we could do with our time. With the number of causes out there, why prison ministry?
An unjust system
It’s not a secret that imprisonment has been used for different things throughout history. Whether fueling racism, furthering poverty, or creating free labor, the prison system isn’t always used for law and order. It is well known that prison systems gouge inmates and the families of inmates with Sometimes a crime might be committed, but the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
There’s also the reality that not everyone who goes to prison is guilty of their crimes. According to The Innocence Project, approximately four to six percent of inmates are innocent of the crimes which they’ve been convicted. This number might sound small, but if we consider it is thousands of people, it’s enough to recognize the system makes mistakes.
The need for self-examination
Prison ministry matters because every one of us lives imprisoned to something at one point in our lives. Some are imprisoned by the things without, but many of us live imprisoned by the things within. We might be free to go where we want and do what we want, but inner issues can imprison us as much as a physical incarceration. Whether the results of sin, abuse, emotional disturbances, problem childhoods or relationships, bad marriages or addiction, we’ve all had something that held us captive.
It’s easy to look down on people in prison; surely, many do. The reality, however, is that they live a physical reality many live invisibly. Jesus is our ultimate liberator, regardless of the situation we experience. We are people called to proclaim liberty to the captives – those who are captive from within, and those who are captive from without.
The need for humility
Helen Prejean once said, “People are more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” Judgment doesn’t look good on any of us. There isn’t one reason people wind up in prison. There’s not one set of circumstances or problems that lead people there. Just as we struggle to be free, so do they. They also have families, pasts, and loved ones who also struggle to find freedom in this trauma. Prison ministry challenges our levels of compassion and mercy, being able to see things beyond how they may appear on the surface.
Prison ministry is personal
The world of prison ministry isn’t vague and leading. It’s the ability to bring light into literal darkness, compassion into a judgmental world, and humanity into a place where such is void. This is a personal ministry, one moved by human needs rather than ideas. As a part of pastoral care, it is about being there for people when they need someone the most. Rather than be a judgmental voice in this world, prison ministry reminds us to be voices of compassion, of mercy, and liberty as we show all the captives how they can truly be set free.
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