Prison

Prison Ministry

God does not reject incarcerated people

God’s love is not selective. It’s for this reason that Jesus’ plan for salvation takes into account individuals who are in jail or in prison for either minor or serious crimes. In fact, Jesus’ mission was revealed in the following words, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,” (Isaiah 61:1, NIV). Though this verse is not to be taken literally, it is a fact that the good news of the Messiah is intended to reach everybody regardless their situation or condition.

Statistics about people in correction and incarceration in the US

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), about 6.94 million people were supervised by the U.S. adult correctional systems at year end 2012. This number was the equivalent to about 1 in 35 U.S. adults. However, around 1.35 million people were incarcerated in state prison, 277,800 in federal prisons and 744,500 in local jails (bjs.gov).

Call for Christians to assist and share the gospel to the people in jails and prisons

People are incarcerated all over the globe. As Christians, our task is to go where they are in jails and prisons to share the good news and Jesus’ love with them. Our task is also to sit down with them to provide them life-changing behavior counseling in a very structured and planned manner to lessen or eliminate the threat they represent for their fellow inmates, jail or prison staff and the whole society.

The role of the believers is not solely to attend church, but also to contribute to make our world safer and better. The prison ministry is one of the best places to help on this matter. We cannot leave this task to the police officers and the government entirely. Believers need to have a sense of civics too. Therefore, they need to step up in ministering to the jails or prisons to help out with prisoners and to win them for Christ.