J. R. Woodgates
Tag Archives: prison reform
A poem by Deon Nowell is featured in Daily Light on the Prisoner’s Path. President Obama granted Deon clemency in 2017. Now he’s mentoring other young men in Charleston. Well done, Deon!
After completing their studies, graduates will be placed in prisons around North Carolina to serve as pastoral counselors, augmenting prison chaplains whose numbers were cut a decade ago by state legislators to save money.
In the “Doing Good Time” section of Daily Light on the Prisoner’s Path, I tell how Christian prisoners can minister undeserved blessings to unbelieving fellow inmates. These give them an unexpected experience of God’s presence and mercy, lowering their resistance to hearing about God’s love for them.
In this wonderful video by street evangelist Thomas Fischer, a novice speaks words of command in Jesus’ name, resulting in unexpected healings for two young cousins, leading to their personal salvation.
Christian prisoners can minister in this same way in any correctional institution – and with the same results!
Christianity Today tackles that question in its latest edition.
The “findings” seem so obvious, yet so few inmates benefit from them.
See also: NATURE’S SOLACE IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
The Colson Task Force was established by Congressional mandate in 2014 as a nine‐person, bipartisan, blue-ribbon panel charged with developing practical, data-driven recommendations to enhance public safety by creating a more just and efficient federal corrections system.
After 20 years and countless reforms at one of America’s worst prisons, Burl Cain is now facing criminal charges of his own. But his legacy is a godly one.
The Obama Administration will soon announce the return of Pell Grants for federal prisoners. Those with fewer than five years left on their time will be able to pay for classes taught by accredited colleges.
Here’s what a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Maryland’s Goucher College has discovered teaching prisoner’s about the Bible:
Judge Bennett [considered] the weight of 10 years: one more nonviolent offender packed into an overcrowded prison; another $300,000 in government money spent. ‘I would have given him a year in rehab if I could,’ he told his assistant. ‘How does 10 years make anything better? What good are we doing?’
Nearly half of all federal prisoners are nonviolent drug offenders. Many federal judges who sentence them feel coerced by the congressionally mandated sentencing laws that lock away so many men and women.
This is a long read about one Iowa judge but it’s worth your time:
The voices of the more than 12 million people who annually pass through one (or more) of the nation’s 3,000 jails seem absent from this process. So too are the voices of their loved ones and most dedicated advocates.
Is it really good news that Koch Industries and the MacArthur Foundation, among other deep-pocket entities, are financing prison reform initiatives? Or are they big-footing grass roots reformers?