Dear John,

If there’s a common thread I hear from people in prison more frequently than any other single thing it’s this: They grew up in a fatherless home. One-fifth of today’s prison population had a father in prison, and the number of children with a father in prison rose by more than 50% between 1991 and 2007. A full 23% of children who have a father in prison have been expelled or suspended from school during their childhood education.

It’s clear that having a father present in the home is crucial to interrupting the vicious cycle of crime. Nearly a decade ago, Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson shared the ministry’s response to this damaging trend: “We were losing a whole generation to crime—young people who had no moral grounding. We couldn’t address soaring crime rates unless we first addressed the breakdown of morality and family.”

Despite the statistics, there is reason to hope. Every day we hear testimonies of overcoming the trauma of fatherlessness from those we serve in our Prison Fellowship Academy and from our very own staff.

Take Sammy Perez, who never knew his father and was sent to a group home as a ward of the state when his mother gave him up. As a teenager Sammy was part of a gang and ended up in a maximum-security youth detention center at 15. He was on the road to a lifetime of crime when the Lord intervened.

Sammy handed his life over to Christ, and when he left prison, he started anew. Sammy earned his bachelor’s degree from Liberty University, and he’s now married with four children—and he’s a Prison Fellowship staff member. As director of our grassroots engagement program, Sammy is working to positively impact the criminal justice system, as well as the men and women still inside. Sammy is proof that, with God, all things are possible.

It is because we know that intervening in the lives of children can have lifelong impact that we partner with mentoring programs like Growing in Grace, which bring help and hope to kids struggling in school. Organizations like these not only provide help with homework and much-needed after-school programs but also offer godly role models who demonstrate positive adult-child relationships for these kids. By enfolding children and families into positive communities, we’re working to ensure that we prevent the difficult path of crime and incarceration for these vulnerable children.

Another important way we work to interrupt the cycle of crime is through Prison Fellowship Academy, in which participants take a yearlong journey to develop and practice the biblically based values of community, affirmation, productivity, responsibility, restoration, and integrity. In more than 100 prison across 31 states, this program is literally changing lives and generations. We recently received this note from Matt, one of our Academy graduates:

“The effects of the COVID pandemic go on and on, but fortunately, so do the effects of the Prison Fellowship Academy. Since attending the Academy in the fall of 2019, I continue to think about how my presence influences others, for good or bad. I think about how my responsibility to my family influences future generations. I also think about how my obedience and commitment to the following authority brings about blessings instead of the turmoil I once knew from disobeying the law. Even though most of our COVID restrictions are still in place, and nobody knows whether life will ever return to ‘normal,’ the pandemic has allowed me the opportunity to reflect on how I can live the second half of my life as a responsible citizen and become a blessing to others by living with integrity.”

It is only through the grace of God—along with your prayers and support—that these miraculous transformations happen. The Lord had given us life-changing and Kingdom-building work to do. Thank you for joining us on this sacred journey. 

Praising Him,