Stories tagged with: prison

• Faith group's advocacy speeds prison reform bill

  by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, May 23, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  iStock

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Years of prison reform advocacy is reaping fruit for Prison Fellowship with the passage of a bill termed a "first step" in rehabilitating federal prisoners and reducing recidivism.

  Churches are also a crucial player in preventing incarceration, reforming prisoners and speeding their productivity upon release, Christian advocates said after the U.S. House passed the First Step Act on Tuesday (May 22). Read More

• NAAF links with Prison Fellowship to reach community

  by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, April 30, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo submitted by Darron Edwards

  KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Racial disparities within America's criminal justice system are spurring black Southern Baptist pastors to work more closely with the national evangelical Prison Fellowship ministry, a pastors' group told Baptist Press.

  The National African American Fellowship (NAAF) of the Southern Baptist Convention is dialoging with Prison Fellowship to study ways pastors can cooperate with the national prison ministry to better serve congregations, NAAF Executive Director Dennis Mitchell said. Read More

• SBC DIGEST: WMU's Carol Causey to retire; SEBTS launches degree program for inmates

  by WMU, SEBTS, Biblical Recorder & BP Staff, posted Friday, August 25, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  In today's SBC DIGEST: Carol Causey, director of national WMU's missions resource center, has announced her retirement, effective Sept. 15, after nearly 32 years of service; Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary begins a degree program for inmates at the Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina. Read More

• Jail ministry reaches out to inmates' children

  by Kendra Peek/Kentucky Today, posted Monday, July 10, 2017 (7 years ago)

  A new ministry at the Boyle County Detention Center in Kentucky is aimed not at those who are incarcerated, but at their children -- the ones who often suffer most when parents are behind bars. Read More

• ERLC helps lead call for justice reform

  by Tom Strode, posted Thursday, June 22, 2017 (7 years ago)

  The Southern Baptist Convention's ethics entity has joined with Prison Fellowship and other organizations in an appeal to Christians to work for a "fair and redemptive" justice system in the world's leading incarcerating country. Read More

• Prison's 'field ministers' see wide-ranging impact

  by Alex Sibley, posted Monday, March 13, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo by Matheus Oliveira

  HUNTSVILLE, Texas (BP) -- "I've been in prison before," Michael Rios humbly reflects. "I came in when I was very young. I had the right ideas, I had the right intents: get out, get married, have a life."

  Dressed in a white prison uniform, Rios speaks slowly but directly, his tattooed hands slowly gesturing to accentuate his words. He has been in prison longer than some of his fellow inmates have even been alive. Though Rios had the "right intents," bad choices kept him locked up, and he is now serving a life sentence. Read More

• Inmate's gender transition said to show ministry need

  by David Roach, posted Friday, January 13, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock/License purchase required

  SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BP) -- The first government-funded gender reassignment surgery for a prison inmate in the U.S. has been cited as evidence of the need to address gender identity struggles in prison ministry.

  Shiloh Quine, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without parole, is recovering from male-to-female gender reassignment surgery funded by the state of California, The Washington Post reported Jan. 10. Read More

• Journey to pastorate included jail time for Fla. pastor

  by Nicole Kalil, posted Friday, December 09, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  MIDDLEBURG, Fla. (BP) -- It's not the conventional road to the pastorate.

  "I wouldn't wish [my] story on anyone, but I wouldn't change anything about it, either," said Adam Wiggins, campus pastor of The Creek, a new campus of First Baptist Church of Orange Park, Fla., which is just outside of Jacksonville.

  Wiggins' path to the pulpit has been complicated, but it has ultimately landed him on staff with FBC Orange Park leading the church's newest effort to minister to an unreached community in Middleburg. Read More

• Razor wire & steel door give way to layman's heart

  by Chris Turner/Tennessee Baptist and Reflector, posted Thursday, September 15, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by David LaMar

  DANDRIDGE, Tenn. (BP) -- It is a familiar routine. First there is the sound of an obnoxious buzzer, then the sudden firing of a heavy deadbolt that unlocks the gray steel door separating freedom from incarceration. The closing slam reverberates down the gray cinderblock hall sending an authoritative reminder that freedom is not an option. Read More

• Bicycle ministry steering lives toward recovery

  by Eric Reed and Morgan Jackson, posted Wednesday, July 27, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by Eric Reed

  HERRIN, Ill. (BP) -- "Pastor Hurricane! Pastor Hurricane! Me next!" a 9-year-old redhead shouted.

  "That's not his name, Dominic! That's his church," the boy's mother chided. "He's Pastor Gee."

  "Me, me, Pastor Gee!" Dominic chanted. He wanted his turn on the bicycle training path.

  On a warm day behind the Herrin House of Hope soup kitchen and thrift shop, pastor Jeffrey Gee of Hurricane Memorial Baptist Church in Herrin, Ill., and several volunteers taught children bike safety, complete with helmets and a course lined with orange traffic cones. The bikes they rode were second-hand, but they had been completely repaired and spruced up in the church's bike shop. It's all part of Gee's plan to keep the kids out of trouble, and at the same time teach former convicts a trade to keep them from returning to prison. Read More