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Friends United Meeting |
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September 2000
Looking Forward to Prison
By Del Coppinger
We look forward to going to prison! That is the general expression of the approximately twenty Monday night volunteers who participate in the InterChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) at the Newton, Iowa, Correctional Facility.
Volunteer Iowa Quakers are Peter and Marilyn Schuler of Lynnville and Erwin Lopez and Del Coppinger of Oskaloosa. Volunteers find when they go to Unit E in Newton they receive a friendly greeting because the prisoners anticipate their visits.
The 200 inmates enthusiastically enter into the praying, singing and discussions which supplement the studies. The men are avid Bible students and have chosen to be in this unit dedicated to Christian studies. The inmates appreciate having courses taught from a Christian perspective and say that this is the element that has been missing from their lives and the courses they have previously attended. The inmates believe their experiences with Jesus Christ will empower them to stay out of prison when they are released.
Movie and TV images of prison don't accurately portray this environment. Unit E is not dark and somber, nor tough and threatening; it is clean, light and respectfully happy. Although you are surrounded by razor-wire and locked doors, despair does not prevail--hope and victory through Jesus Christ does. Here we are brothers and sisters in Jesus and we learn from one another with mutual respect and genuine friendships.
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative is modeled after a successful Prison Fellowship Brazil program founded in 1973 at the Humaita Prison in San Paolo. The program on which IFI is based is operating in more than 40 prisons in Brazil, and has been successfully replicated in Ecuador.
The IFI Legal Basis statement says, "A state cannot engage in or advance religious indoctrination, but it can allow program providers who do, if they are also meeting the secular objectives of the program." Because IFI has a successful record of reducing former inmates' return to prison, and because it is based on inmates volunteering to be in its program, it is in high demand by various states who would like to see IFI installed in their systems. As part of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, IFI was first begun in Texas, April 21, 1997, then in Iowa. A new program was recently started near Wichita, making Kansas the third state.
The IFI fact sheet says it "is a Christ-centered, values-based, pre-release prison program to support inmates through their spiritual and moral transformation. The three-phase program begins 12 to 18 months before an inmate is released, and continues with 6 to 12 months of aftercare once the inmate has returned to the community." IFI promises men that upon completion of the program they will find them a job, a mentor to help with the transition from prison to civilian life, a place to live and a church home. In Texas where the program has been in effect long enough to have "graduates", only four of the 96 men released from the program have been returned to prison.
Volunteers believe these inmates will be used by God to help stimulate revivals in local congregations when they are released. In some ways these men may be able to mentor those who volunteer to assist them on the outside. Their knowledge of the Bible is above average and their experiential knowledge of Christ in prison will give them a vital testimony to share Jesus with others who are walking in darkness.
If you are fortunate enough to have them in your congregation, welcome them warmly. They have much to offer in the sharing of Christian fellowship and ministry.
Del Coppinger is the former Superintendent of Iowa Yearly Meeting. He and his wife, Mary Ann, attend Grinnell, New Sharon and College Avenue Friends Meetings.
Copyright (c) 2000 Friends United Meeting
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