Corrections Director Notes Jail Work

Churches and other groups have significant roles to play in helping ex-offenders make a successful transition from jail or prison into society at large, said Patricia Caruso, the director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, at a recent meeting at a Christian Reformed church in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Increasingly, corrections officials are seeing the value of finding groups willing to reach out to inmates in prison and to assist those recently released in readjusting and becoming productive members of society, Caruso told the group that met at Church of the Servant (COS).

COS is a CRC congregation that was the planting church for Celebration Fellowship, a prison congregation in Ionia at Bellamy Creek. About 35 to 40 inmates take part in a Bible study and worship service each Monday night. Christian Reformed Home Missions has been a significant supporter of the initiative.

The recent meeting at COS was for volunteer-partners of Celebration Fellowship. It attracted over 100 people involved in reentry services, including volunteers, state officials, and community faith-based agency staff.

The goal of the gathering was to help "collaborate together with one another, along with community and faith-based representatives who are engaged in working with prisoners, to provide understanding, support, and encouragement for one another’s work," said Rev. Richard Rienstra.

Rienstra is the pastor/developer of the prison congregation initiative which partners over 65 church volunteers with Celebration Church, an emerging church recognized by Classis Grand Rapids East.

Before Caruso spoke, participants had dinner and heard a quick update of various initiatives involving prisoners behind bars and ways in which they are being helped once they get out.

Caruso spoke for 30 minutes and answered questions for another 30 minutes. Among the points that she made, says Rienstra, were:

• MDOC is working in collaboration with others in the field to bolster reentry programs.
• A cultural change is happening in the department of corrections as more wardens and staff measure success for prisoners as “living in the community.”
• In March 2007, there were a total of 51,554 inmates in Michigan prisons. Recently, that number had dropped to 44,070.
• As the number of prisoners behind bars has dropped, the MDOC has been able to develop additional resources to help support “aftercare” programs.

In her speech, Caruso also sketched some of the background of Michigan’s prison system and how it has operated.

"I heard remarks afterwards that the speech was powerful, inspirational, and challenging. The address was a thoughtful analysis of the history of MDOC and the changes it is undergoing as it collaborates with others to keep the state and neighborhoods safe," says Rienstra.

The director made an earnest appeal, he said, "to the faith community to stay involved and to support the new emphasis in corrections policies as (they are being) implemented in the reentry movement."