(The following is an account of Free Inside prison ministry by guest blogger Gordon Lawrence of NewLife.  If you are interested in becoming involved with Free Inside, contact NewLife or visit the Free Inside website at www.free-inside.com.)

Free Inside was started about five years ago by the current director (and former NewLife pastor) Peter Dewberry, who is the only paid staff member.  All other workers, who number about 50, are volunteers.  Our instructional material is the ALPHA program, and we alternate the 15 week ALPHA 1 introduction to Christianity with ALPHA 2, an introduction to the Christian life.  A normal program lasts two hours.  After a brief introduction, a 35 minute video is shown, followed by the inmates and volunteers breaking up into small groups for about an hour-long discussion.  The program closes with the sharing of prayer needs.  We run programs in the spring and the fall in order to allow breaks for volunteers. 

There are a couple of rules that the Connecticut prison system has that add to the need for volunteers.  For example, there are five security levels in prison (five is maximum security), and we are not allowed to mix levels in our program.  This means that in a facility like York, the women’s prison, we must run two programs:  one for maximum and one for minimum security.  A second rule is that the State of Connecticut recognizes five religions, and inmates must declare their affiliation upon entering the prison.  This means that a declared Catholic is not allowed to attend the same program as a declared Protestant.  Fortunately, several Catholic chaplains have been very supportive of our work, so as long as we have some Catholic volunteers, we have been permitted to run the identical program for Catholics.  These rules mean that we may have up to four programs running in the same prison facility, with a corresponding increase in our need for volunteers.

I have been a volunteer since the inception of Free Inside, and this is my first experience with prison.  My time has been full of surprises, but has been a rich and rewarding experience.  My first surprise was that inmates look much like I do.  I am not sure what I expected, but I have found that they look much like any man in the street.  My second surprise was how open the attendees at our programs are.  The discussions we have with the inmates are the most open and intense that I have participated in, at least since I was a student.  I believe that when we talk in church groups, we tend to cover up, but I have found that inmates usually acknowledge their problems.  In fact, many to whom I have spoken give thanks for their arrest.  They believe that God is giving them another chance.

We never pry into an inmate’s background; however, very often they want to talk, and use their own experiences to illustrate points in the group discussion.  Interestingly, most freely admit their guilt.  I guess that one of my preconceptions was cultivated by the joke that we often hear about prisoners that “there are no guilty men in prison.”  I have not found that to be true in my time with Free Inside.  I have also found that most men (I cannot speak for the women) who have already come to Christ, or are thinking seriously about the Christian life, have someone, usually a mother or a grandmother, who they know is praying for them and is deeply concerned about them.

Working in one of the Catholic programs was also instructive for me, both with the volunteers, who I discovered loved the Lord in the same way that I do, and in the inmates, many of whom came to our program testifying how the Lord has met them in the Catholic services and studies that they had been attending.  I confess that I found that surprising, but I have been forced to admit that God often works where I did not expect.

I accept every man’s story at face value, but I wonder if they are all true.  I have no idea – although I know that many inmates are used to a life of deception in order to survive, I have heard many sad and tragic stories that are clearly true.  I have met many inmates with a very genuine faith and a genuine desire to live the Christian life both on the inside and on the outside when they are released.  There is overwhelming thanks by all the inmates I ever meet for volunteers who spend time with them on the inside.

I am left with great concern for all I meet as to how they will survive on the outside.  When they leave, who will their friends be?  I know that often they are people who will be of no help.  One inmate who said he was twenty-one, but looked much younger, told me that he had to make sure he never saw his father again.  When I asked why, he said whenever he visited his father (he was from broken home), his father filled him with alcohol and gave him drugs. I also wonder how they will find a job and support their families?  After all, who is anxious to employ an ex-convict?  How will they settle in a family where the wife has had to survive without a man in the house and what will be the state of the family when they get out?  Living the Christian life is never easy, but the ex-convict has additional problems just to survive.  Some have never worked, at least at anything legal.  They need our prayers.

There are many in the prison system who we never meet at our Free Inside programs, because they do not volunteer to attend.  The only people who can reach them are Christian inmates and chaplains.  We do our utmost to work with the chaplains, because their support is essential for our work, and because they faithfully work in very difficult circumstance, as they are sometimes misunderstood by the correctional “system”.  There are many faithful chaplains with great hearts, but they must endure many disappointments.  Please pray that God will work within the 19 prisons in Connecticut and the approximately 20,000 inmates, who are a constantly revolving population.

Matthew 25:31 – 46 -  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?   When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” 

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