What hope do you have when you have no hope?
By Bill Corcoran
Dave Brown & Michael Poole, prison volunteers Tony Copple, Prison Alpha Advisor, Rev. Jonathan Mills, KBC, Dave Atkins, Prison Alpha Advisor
On November 8, 2008 a small group interested in prison ministry met at Kanata Baptist Church, Kanata, Ontario. The remarkable video “Ernie Hollands Hooked” was viewed and then there was discussion around the video and the application of Prison Alpha at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC).
OCDC houses some 550 inmates. The conditions there make it one of the most unpleasant places in Canada. If you lock up that many inmates in an overcrowded facility, with a shortage of beds and resources, within a justice system that sees them appear in court on average eleven times before they go to their place of incarceration, you have a recipe for despair.
Day after day, the focus is the same: survival. Will I lose my mind? Will I be attacked by someone? Will I live to see another day? Will I even WANT to see another day? Despair.
In the midst of all this, there is a light of hope, a light of love that shines on each and every inmate, and with it comes a lifeline that is freely given and is there for all who want it. It is a lifeline born out of caring and love… an antidote to their despair. They need only ask for it.
Where Love and Justice Meet
Every week, Prison Alpha teams join with other loving and caring volunteers who visit the detention centre and interact on different levels with the male and female inmates who are present – inmates whose voluntary participation ranges from cautious curiosity to dependence on the visits. Those who are in a bad state in their lives are the most interested. The Prison Alpha teams also coordinate with the ex-offender aftercare and treatment agencies on the outside to assist with successful community reintegration of the ex-offender. This has a significant effect of reducing crime rates.
Three teams (one each in Minimum and Maximum Security Male units and one for Minimum and Maximum Security female units) of committed Christian Prison Alpha volunteers drawn from a pool of 30 work together to dispense caring and love, something that many inmates have NEVER experienced… even as children. While the volunteers’ actions speak of THEIR love, the main focus is on the love of God which they present and discuss in the context of the Alpha program. They have two objectives: help the participants to meet Jesus and try to reduce recidivism that sees eight of ten reoffend. Over seven years, more than a thousand inmates have attended Alpha.
Through Alpha, the inmates learn that
The dedicated volunteers in the Minimum Security Male area are able to touch 150 inmates every week ... the 20 or so, who attend and the rest by way of the handout material that the 20 take back with them and share with other inmates. Guards are touched, too.
The prison’s Co-ordinating Chaplain recently stated, “Yes, my prison is in revival!”
Clearly, God touches lives through this ministry. There have been many baptisms (60+) in the past 18 months, the first 12 of which were performed in June, 2007, in the exercise yard. The Lord must smile when he sees inmates publicly confirming their dedication of their lives to Him while being baptized in a prison… in a Rubbermaid laundry hamper!
Questions about this program or offers to help, in whatever form, should be directed to:
Tony Copple,
Dave Atkins,
Pastor Jonathan Mills
tcopple(at)anglicangathering.ca
em738(at)ncf.ca
Dave Brown,
KBC Men’s Ministry
Kanata Lakes Fellowship
Alpha Advisor Ottawa
KBC Senior Pastor
cfdjbrown(at)
rogers.com
jmills(at)kbc.on.ca
613 831-7634
613 591-3903
613 591-1932
613 836-3146 E311
Other related websites
Alpha for prisons
Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre
Local prison ministry
Alpha Ottawa