Just Give ‘Em a Fighting Chance (pt. 1)

Craig Redd is the founder of Strong Tower Ministry, a local church centered ministry assisting prisoners as they transition into life on this side of the walls. The ministry gets its name from Proverbs 18:10 which says, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.” Craig was recently released from prison following a nine-year stint in a Colorado correctional facility and has been attending Providence Bible Church (my church) ever since. While in prison, Craig was a chaplain’s clerk and a very involved member of the church within the walls.

The Strong Tower Ministry re-entry program is much needed in Colorado, since the state currently is experiencing a 10% growth rate in prison population (4.3% national) with a total prison population of 34,000 inmates as of 2008. 50% of these prisoners come from Denver and three of its surrounded community. Statistically speaking, 70% of these men will return to prison within 3 years of being released. [The big word term for this is “recidivism.”] These stats are not good, no matter how you look at them.

The ministry is still in its early stages, but it keeps Craig busy full-time as he meets with prospective donors, speaks to area churches, and works to secure housing, employment, mentors, and a Christian local church community for ex-offenders as they are released. Many of these men were saved while in prison and became friends with Craig there, meaning that for many of them, he is the only Christian they know on the outside.

Many of these men leave prison without any money, any place to stay, and without any healthy, constructive relationships on the outside. It is common for them to have burned all their bridges so-to-speak living their old life that sent them to prison in the first place. Godly mentors and people who will help give these men a fighting chance to succeed in life are hard to come by, especially when all you have to your name is the clothes on your back and the tracking bracelet latched onto your ankle. It wasn’t the crowd they typically ran in before, and it’s not generally the crowd that is running to meet them the day they’re released either.

Wendy, Craig’s fiancé is also a former inmate. As she tells it, back in 2001, she was married and had two young kids. The marriage was unhealthy and led to fighting and, in her case, fighting led to drinking. In March 2001, Wendy and her husband had a big fight and she left the house around 11:30 PM to go to hang out at a friend’s house and get drunk. The weather was nasty that night, with much of the Denver area experiencing blizzard-like conditions. Wendy said she doesn’t remember what happened next because she was drunk, but she has been told what happened next through reading the accident report. She ended up driving the wrong way (against traffic) for 3 miles on the interstate before hitting a car head on. Wendy was cut out of her car with the Jaws of Life and rushed to the hospital where doctors determined that she suffered from a broken neck in two places, a brain injury, and a broken femur. The man whose car she hit did not survive.

Wendy was in recovery for two years before the legal process got around to arresting her and she still cries as she tells her story, obviously heartbroken by the heartbreak that she caused in so many others as a result of her actions. But Wendy also sees God’s hand in this tragedy. One blessing was that she was able to go to the top-rated hospital in the country for brain related injuries. Because of this, she has experience a significant recovery, although she will always carry with her some visible symptoms of the internal injuries. A second blessing is that while in prison, a woman taught her about the Lord and Wendy because a Christian. She was incarcerated for 4 years and 7 months and has now been out for 3 years, this October. She met Craig while in prison through a friend who was a pen pal with him. When Craig was released almost a year ago, Wendy met up with Craig to seek counsel on spiritual matters and to get advice on some relationship problems she was having. Yup, the rest is history (see: “Wendy, Craig’s fiance”).

Wendy says that her caseworker essentially told her there was no hope; that she would end up on in a homeless shelter and would certainly get no social security. God had other plans for her, and now Wendy believes that her role in the Strong Tower Ministry will be to touch the hearts of women getting out of prison, not as an uppity-up peering down her nose as these women, but as a woman who’s been there.

A woman named Kathy was also in attendance Sunday night and shared about her experience in prisoner re-entry programs. Kathy has been involved in the work since 1996 and said she initially got involved “because no one else wants to do this.” Wendy’s husband has been in prison from 34 years now and most likely will never be released. Her mission is to help men who get out, to be able to stay out. She gets around 30 letters a week from prisoners and ex-cons seeking her assistance. She regularly sits in on the parole hearings of men who request it, drives men to job interviews if they need transportation, serves on the boards of two different prisoner re-entry assistance organizations, and works with six different prisons, one of which is the Sterling Correctional Facility. This is where she met Craig. She was the only person to sit by his side at his parole hearing and is now thrilled to see all that he is doing on the outside.

When asked about the apparent dangers of what she does, Kathy says that these men are commonly viewed as the scum of the earth, and that while some people might think that she will inevitably be raped and murdered by one of these men, her experience speaks otherwise. She says that ex-offenders tend to be very appreciative of the help she provides and treat he with respect.

Kathy was also asked to dispel the top three myths about the prison re-entry program. Here’s what she said:

1. “People in prison are all violent criminals and will never change.”

According to Kathy, a lot of prison staff would allow ex-cons live next door to them if that were allowed (I’m not sure if it is) and they ever got out. She goes on to say that many men are in prison for crimes that would make you say, “You got sent to prison for that!?”

2. “All sex-offenders are going to snatch your children off the playground.”

Kathy says that people need to be educated on what a sex crime actually is. It’s not just men abducting and doing terrible things to young children. Getting busted for public urination can qualify a person, legally, as a sex-offender. Trying to pee at a park behind a try and getting seen by a child might be a stupid move, but it hardly qualifies someone as a sick-o. A 20-year-old man who has consensual sex with a 16-year-old female results in the same. Again, not the decisions we’d like to see happening, but a far cry from the stereotypical sex-offender image that typically enters a person’s head.

3.”Criminals are just going to break into your house the moment they get out.”

- Remember, prison isn’t fun. Men don’t want to go back. They might break into your house, but it’s really not likely.

——————————————-

Stay tuned for (a much shorter) Part Two.

Advertisement

~ by kevinroot86 on September 21, 2010.