Jail/Prison Forum

A lot of men and women come to God while in prison and a lot of their family members need support if they are still on the inside. Jesus taught us to visit those in prison and I think we should have a forum where we can support family members as well.


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To the person who started this thread:

Soon I will be involved in jail ministry. I volunteered to be a Bible study facilitator at a county jail. I am much interested in learning what's involved to better prepare myself.

I do not know whether a new forum will be formed. In the meantime I wonder if you can start a thread in one of the Ministry subforums. Evangelism?

Please pm me when you start a thread.
Thanks.

Rupert

internet access where i live for prisoners is not allowed. it can't be monitored properly, and is too costly. we have lots of ministery programs allowed via people, bibles, services etc.

i just had an idea.
there could be a men's subforum or thread in the men's forum, and one in the ladies too.

goldenviolet said:

internet access where i live for prisoners is not allowed. it can't be monitored properly, and is too costly. we have lots of ministery programs allowed via people, bibles, services etc.

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If I understand correctly the request is not for prisoners to have access.
It is to support their loved ones and the people involved in prison ministry.
Something in the Ministry area would be the best fit maybe.

In the forum it could also include people who just write prisoners.
Discussin precautions when deciding to reach out to those in prison.
Also giving ideas on what to discuss in those communications.

At least that is my take.
I have written prisoners in the past.
And babysat for loved ones so they could visit their spouse in prison.

I would personally strongly support a jail/prison ministries forum somewhere.

I'm in basic support, unless this would need to be a 'queue moderation' forum.
I say this because we apparently didn't have adequate queue moderation over the holidays, and that problem may need to be addressed before we establish any more?

I think the idea of a support for familys with loved ones in jail/prison is really a great idea!~God bless

This is a good idea, but needs to be carefully thought out:

(1) There would be a real tendency for both prisoners, family, victims to influence or jeopardize their cases by revealing critical information about themselves or the cases, and this is not only illegal, but would probably be an abrogation of justice. A lawyer should be consulted over this one.

(2) There would be an equally pernicious tendency for undercover investigators (and not just prosecutors either) to manipulate and spy upon, and possibly incriminate 'suspects' and their family and friends. This also is a serious human rights/ entrapment issue, which could have frightening consequences for innocent parties.

Needs some careful research, and 'many councels', in this case REAL lawyers.
Hopefully some volunteer 'human rights/Christian' lawyers willing to devote their time to help!!!

I think its for support for the Familes and those in that Ministry

Nazaroo said:

This is a good idea, but needs to be carefully thought out:

(1) There would be a real tendency for both prisoners, family, victims to influence or jeopardize their cases by revealing critical information about themselves or the cases, and this is not only illegal, but would probably be an abrogation of justice. A lawyer should be consulted over this one.

(2) There would be an equally pernicious tendency for undercover investigators (and not just prosecutors either) to manipulate and spy upon, and possibly incriminate 'suspects' and their family and friends. This also is a serious human rights/ entrapment issue, which could have frightening consequences for innocent parties.

Needs some careful research, and 'many councels', in this case REAL lawyers.
Hopefully some volunteer 'human rights/Christian' lawyers willing to devote their time to help!!!

Click to expand...

i disagree profoundly. For one thing, what prosecutors would actually stake out an internet forum, on the idle hope that maybe one of their defendants' families might innocently post some smoking gun bit of evidence. Absurd!

But more importantly, families of prisoners seeking out a support forum for their specific needs would tend to want prayer for specific, weird, not normal, run- of- the- mill requests that few outside of jail ministry would understand. Major issues related to having an incarcerated 'fill in the blank', that non incarcerated might not even think of. What to do about mean kids in school teasing the kids for their criminal family member, embarrassing news stories & the (understandable) public revulsion over the details of the crime, being on the receiving end of the hostility & venom during grocery shopping, etc., the lonliness faced by the wives & husbands facing their own involuntary 'sentence' of being alone for however long the inmate must serve, apprehension about the future: long & short term, jail visits where kids are not allowed, infrequency of letters, scary letter content that has those left behind unsure of the safety of the fam member, yet powerless to do anything about it. Tons of stuff like that would be discussed, not 'i know where he hid the money, where can i rent a backhoe & how hard are those things to operate?'

I've been involved in jail & prison ministry for years & in general, family members of inmates are as shocked & surprised by the arrest as anyone, totally ignorant of specifics concerning the crime & yeah, i realize that sounds ridiculously unbelievable, but it's true or every spouse of every criminal would be locked up right alongside them for being an accessory. I have yet to hear even one family member ramble on about the crime, always it's the painful aftershocks & how prison has affected the family. I have ministered to i dunno, many dozens of families of inmates & the inmates & this has been my experience.

I think such a forum is a dandy idea & i'd post on it.