Post Incarceration Outreach through Community Based Residential Facilities Makes a Church Grow

Abstract

In 2011 the Bureau of Justice reported that the prison population in the United States has steadily grown and shows no signs of reversing. An average of six hundred and eighty thousand1 prisoners are released each year from federal and state prisons and an unsubstantiated number from city and county jails. Re-entry programs into society have been developed by the federal and numerous state prison systems to prepare the incarcerated to safely return to the community and live as law abiding citizens. Unfortunately, the number of post-incarcerated (ex-convicts) who return to criminal activities and to prison is about sixty six percent within three years of release. While ministries are conducted within the prisons, there are limited ministerial services for the post-incarcerated for re-integrating or beginning a faithful church life. This study will investigate punishment/imprisonment over the centuries and what is being done today for rehabilitation/re-entry programs within prisons and within the communities. I intend to show that in taking the steps and doing outreach to the post-incarcerated through the joint effort of Community Based Residential Facilities (CBRF’s) the church will experience growth in gospel ministry and fellowship through loving relationships with those outcast from society. It is my intention to offer a proposal as an outreach program to the post incarcerated and families. Chaplains, pastors, lay ministers, and church members will grow spiritually and in confidence in evangelizing and offering fellowship to the post-incarcerated and families. The post-incarcerated and families will grow spiritually and in thanksgiving will be children of God in the church and in society.