Going to jail is
not usually where one starts over.
Hopefully, people would leave jail or prison having begun some process,
program, spiritual growth, etc., that will send them off on a more positive
path, perhaps even life-changing. It
does happen. Movies portray such changes
like The Birdman of Alcatraz, and books by Chuck Colson, who began
prison ministry after his own imprisonment for the Nixon presidency wrongs. He wrote, “ . . . only when I lost everything
I thought made Chuck Colson a great guy had I found the true self God intended
me to be and the true purpose of my life.”
My
road to jail began some years ago when I bought a book by Wally Lamb called Can’t
Keep it to Myself and read Shakespeare Saved My Life by Indiana English
professor Laura Bates. Both books address
the positive effects of writing and reading programs with inmates during their
sentences. I wanted to try something
less grand—I can barely understand some of Shakespeare—but make some use of
reading and writing to benefit people serving time. A cook at the Coles County Jail told me some
inmates there wait many days, even months, for a court date and/or final
outcome of their situation. So, I tried
to contact the jail administrator but couldn’t get a return call. Finally, I
decided just to go by the jail and see if I could catch up with this lady. It happened that I not only got to talk to
her, but someone was there who told me about a Christian program already up and
running.
I
still don’t know the overall structure or outreaches of the Wingman program,
but I decided to try out the mentoring outreach, taking one of the eight two
hour slots a week to sit in a little visitors’ room waiting to be contacted by
an inmate through something like skype.
Previously, all I knew about jails or prisons was what I have seen in the
movies—well, that ship has sailed. Just
recently a much- needed mentors’ meeting at the jail aired some of the
difficulties of the present system and included a tour of the actual jail, an
empty area but a no less sobering experience.
Dismal, gray, concrete block
structure cells house multiple people who try to sleep on metal bunkbeds with 4
or 5 inch mattresses. Here they stay 24
hours a day until they go through some tunnel to the courthouse or are
released. No daylight unless an inmate
is making his or her way through the tunnel.
For
the Christian mentoring, inmates can login on their monitors, one in each cell,
for a faith-based conversation on several topics with a waiting mentor. The program also provides Bibles to people who
want them and many do. Since I am
relatively new, I don’t know who will appear on the monitor and the same is
true for them although regular mentors have certain nights and times and
therefore, more regular connections. The
30 minute sessions each inmate can have are fairly improvisational. Ones I have sat in on or led involve
listening, getting acquainted with the inmates and what they are needing or
seeking, including matters of faith. All
of us try to pray before the 30 minutes ends; some even start with prayer. I try to have some conversation first, initiating
personal interaction.
After
a rocky start including getting bumped off my initial time slot and then having
little interested inmates on a different night and missing a couple weeks around
Thanksgiving, the mentor meeting enabled me to get my old slot back and start
over on this venture. At this point, I
have probably talked to 12-15 individuals, mostly men, and have had some quite
memorable experiences. I would imagine
and understandably so, some inmates get on the phone just to have some social
engagement with someone on the outside.
But a few have especially seemed to be of a repentant heart, wanting to
get right with God and the people they
love, and I hope I have encouraged them and brought them closer to
feeling God’s presence with them. One
young man cried as we prayed at the end and after what he had shared earlier in
the session, I believe his remorse was genuine.
I pray all of us mentors are offering something real on Christian
fellowship and encouragement, clearly pointing them to Christ and His mercy for
us all.
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