Religion News / Jail ministry
Chaplain brings Good News to those behind bars
CARPET COLLECTION
LOCKPORT—He leads chapel services and Bible classes, and offers counseling — behind the locked doors at the Niagara County Jail, where thousands of prisoners stream through each year.
“No matter how good the conditions are—jail is still jail,” says Alex True, the only fulltime chaplain at the county jail. “There’s really a lot of sadness there. . . . anger, frustration.”
True, who holds a history undergraduate degree and a master’s in biblical studies, said he was drawn to a jail ministry when he heard a church talk by a chaplain who was a member of the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry.
“It’s definitely a calling,” True said. “When this chaplain said, ‘God could use you in jail,’ it was like he was speaking directly to me.”
True started out at the jail as interim chaplain a few years ago and began serving full time in April 2007. Besides his ministry to inmates, making rounds in the cell blocks and housing units, the chaplain also leads Bible studies and provides counseling to staff.
True coordinates all clergy visits to the jail and oversees about 40 ministry volunteers who enter the facility on a regular basis to provide a variety of religious services. The Christian Good News Jail & Prison Ministry makes these jail visits easier for those of other religious faiths, within guidelines established by law.
“There are those who’d write off prisoners, but God never does,” said True, who points to Jesus’ admonition to visit the imprisoned. “Human nature gets some in trouble, but we have a God of second chances.”
To cynics who don’t believe in inmate reform, True points out most of those going through the jail are going to get out someday.
“Today’s inmate is tomorrow’s neighbor,” he said.
There’s always hope, as True knows firsthand. Working his way through college as a strip-club bouncer and gym personal trainer, True described himself as “religious, but lost.” That is until some gym co-workers invited him to join them at church. There, True recalls realizing he could have “an individual, personal friendship with Christ.”
True’s role is “difficult, challenging,” yet “completely rewarding,” said Harry Greene, head of the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry. “[An inmate] is no different from you and me.”
In Niagara County, True contributes to the ministry’s national numbers that already tally more than 100,000 jail counseling sessions this year, as well as other services.
After such a session, Greene said, one never looks “at a jail or prison the same way again.”
And he should know, as Greene himself reflects the effectiveness of prison ministry.
Back in the early ’6Os, Greene, as an inmate for bad-check writing, incarcerated in the Arlington County Jail in Virginia, met Good News Chaplain and Founder William Simmer. After being in five jails and the Virginia State Penitentiary, Greene was soon paroled. Greene eventually was able to receive a full pardon from the governor of Virginia and became the first ex-felon in Virginia’s history to serve on the state Board of Corrections.
In the same state where he had been an inmate two decades years earlier, Greene was presented a “distinguished citizen” award from the Virginia State Sheriff’s Association — and an honorary doctor of humanities degree for his work in prison ministry.
The nonprofit organization, now international, that True and Greene serve started nearly nearly a half-century ago, to organize a visitation program for the benefit of inmates, aiding in a physical and spiritual rehabilitation of prisoners after their release and encouragement of continuing education.
In Niagara County, True helps inmates realize how thoughts, attitudes and actions that have caused so much difficulty in the past can be changed, promoting a value system based on personal responsibility and accountability. As True says, “God can, and does, change people.”
‘A Life That Matters’
Also in religion news, an interactive, multimedia event based on Ron Hutchcraft’s book, “A Life That Matters,” will take place 9 a. m. Oct. 31 at Niagara Community Church, 10500 Cayuga Drive in Niagara Falls. Call 297-3399 to register.
Participants will learn how to share their faith as a way of life. The event will be led by Don Sunshine, a former police officer, who says he was “confronted with the truths of the gospel” as a college student. He went on to take SWAT training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. He then went into a fulltime ministry at Family Life Ministries in Bath as the youth action director.
Have an idea about for Religion News? Write to: Louise Continelli, The Buffalo News, P. O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240, or e-mail her at lcontinelli@buffnews.com
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments