I Was In Prison And You...Conference Symposium, Sat. Oct. 1, 2016, Grace Methodist Church, NYC

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for the Days Ahead
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I Was In Prison and You...

 An All-Day Conference Symposium 
About all Aspects of Prison Ministry 

Sat. Oct. 1, 2016, 9:30 am to 4 pm
at Grace United Methodist Church, 
125 West 104th Street, New York, NY

Sponsored by the United Methodist Church 
New York Annual Conference Board 
of Church and Society 

We will lead a white-collar workshop 
at the "I Was in Prison and You..." 
Conference Symposium.

Please join us! 

_____________

Information: http://www.nyac.com/cbcs

Schedule for the Day:

9:30 — Arrival, registration, coffee etc.
10:00 — Worship
11:00 — Panel: How do we minister with the incarcerated and
families? Moderated by George Chochos
11:45 — Break
12:00 — Workshops (see below)
12:45 — Lunch and exploring information tables
2:00 — Panel: How can we advocate for change in the criminal
justice system? Moderated by Kara Gotsch
3:00 — Workshops (see below)
3:45 — Break
4:00 — Final wrap-up and communion

Morning Workshop Selections 

(Ministry with those incarcerated and their families)

Changin’ Your Game Plan – This workshop will describe a new readiness approach to successful prison reentry. Randy Kearse has developed a workbook that provides a step-by-step system that begins while still in prison, aided by a mentor or partner on the outside. Learn how you can participate in empowering people while still incarcerated to be ready for the future of life after prison and parole. (Leader: Randy Kearse)

Kairos Outside – Kairos Outside is a 2½ day Christian Weekend designed to demonstrate God’s grace and love through Christian support for women who have been impacted by incarceration. Learn more about how you and your church could support or implement this program that fosters community and support for those affected by having loved ones in prison. (Leader: Coralie Joseph)

Fortune Society – In existence since 1967, The Fortune Society is a leading provider of alternatives to incarceration and reentry services in the New York area, providing a holistic, one-stop model of service provision. Learn how your church can get involved! (Leader: Ronald Day)

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. – This is the first ministry in the U.S. created to provide confidential support and counseling to individuals, families and organizations with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues. Learn how your church can support this much-needed ministry! (Leaders: Rev. Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer)

Never Forsaken Re-entry Ministries, Inc. – A ministry working to create collaborative partnerships with churches to enhance ex-offender (returning citizens) self-sufficiency, especially through providing housing for the first ninety days of re-entry. Learn how your church can take part! (Leader: Pastor Benny Custodio)

Tools to Stop Solitary: Building Lifelines through Letters & Solidarity through Virtual Reality –
Letters are a crucial way to transcend the living tombs of solitary confinement. Learn about Lifelines to Solitary, an on-going prison correspondence program specifically designed to reach out to people in solitary confinement. This project offers religious communities an important opportunity to bring a spark of human contact into the living tombs of solitary confinement through committing to on-going correspondence. In addition, The Guardian's 6x9: A virtual experience of solitary confinement is a powerful new VR experience that places viewers inside a U.S. solitary confinement prison cell. Learn about how you can share this experience with your congregation from one of the visionaries who helped to create this tool from first-hand experience inside. (Leader: NRCAT)

Afternoon Workshop Selections 

(advocacy for criminal justice reform)

Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility in New York – New York is one of two states to automatically treat youth age 16 and up as adults in the criminal justice system, regardless of the severity of the offense. Members of the Raise the Age – New York Campaign will explain the details of the effort to “raise the age” and how your church can be involved in advocating for sensible solutions to promote children’s well-being and safety. (Leader: Elizabeth Powers, CDF)

Think Outside the Cell – THINK OUTSIDE THE CELL is working to end systemic discrimination against formerly incarcerated people who struggle to reintegrate into communities across this nation. Find out how your congregation can be involved in helping to end the stigma that denies willing and capable men and women the essential building blocks of stable lives. Learn more about their unique combination of research, advocacy, storytelling and coalition-building that can bring about lasting changes in attitudes, laws, policies and practices. (Leader: Sheila Rule)

How Faith Communities Can Support Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement –
The United Nations has defined more than 15 days in solitary confinement as torture. This workshop will explore how the HALT bill in New York state models legislation that is needed everywhere to eliminate torture from our criminal justice system. Members of the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture will lay out the process for the passage of HALT and provide information for how members of your congregation can become legislative advocates.

Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act – Where do things stand with this federal legislation that is designed to make important changes in our criminal justice system? Learn what strategies are needed next in the campaign to get S. 2123 voted on and turned into law. The workshop will emphasize basic lobbying techniques and ways to get congregations involved. (Leader: Kara Gotsch)

Lobbying 101 – Looking for the basics on how to motivate a church to be more involved in social justice issues? Wondering where to start and how to introduce some realistic goals for our congregations? Some professional strategists will provide a step-by-step approach that will inspire us to begin! (Leader: Janis Rosheuvel)

Click link for additional information :

http://www.nyac.com/cbcs

Prisonist.org: Newsletter Jan. '16, White-Collar Ministry, Faith & Dignity for the Days Ahead

Prisonist.org: Faith & Dignity 
for the Days Ahead
Blogs, Guest Blogs & News

Prisonist.org  Newsletter Jan. '16

Faith & Dignity for the Days Ahead

Progressive Prison Project/  Innocent Spouse & Children Project White-Collar Ministry I Advocacy I Service    The first ministry in the United States created to provide confidential support and counseling to individuals and families with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues. Thank You For Your Donation To Our Ministry! Donations Are Our Only Source of Revenue

Prisonist.org  Newsletter Jan. '16 Faith & Dignity for the Days Ahead  Article: Our Ministry Featured in The Greenwich Sentinel   A Worldly Fall, A Spiritual Ascent This article appeared in the January 7, 2016 issue of the Greenwich Sentinel. We hope it offers faith and dignity to individuals and families with white-collar and nonviolent incarceration issues. The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope. __________  "There's a transformation that goes on in every single person I've ever met that has gone through incarceration issues," Grant said. "Whether they recognize it or not, at some point it becomes clear to them that they are no longer the people that they had been. That's generally a good thing. These are life-altering experiences.."  To read the rest of this article, please click here.   Radio Interview: We Talked White-Collar Crime with Babz Rawls Ivy on her radio show We talked white-collar crime, reentry and redemption with our dear friend Babz Rawls Ivy on her talk show, LoveBabz LoveTalk, WNHH FM 103.5 New Haven, CT. Original air date, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. To listen to the archived show on SoundCloud, please click here.    Article: Our Ministry Featured in "The Vision" We are grateful to The New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church for the invitation to write an article for its monthly newspaper, The Vision.  This article appeared on page 8 of the December 15, 2015 issue, was published online and was distributed to all of its 450 churches in New York and Connecticut.   _________  White-Collar Ministry: A Riches-To-Rags-To-Redemption Story "On Easter Sunday 2006, I reported to Allenwood Low Security Corrections Institution in White Deer, Pennsylvania. A guard came out and I showed him my court orders - he did not seem happy about my reporting on Easter Sunday. As we went through the metal door he spun me around, held my hands behind my back and slapped handcuffs on them. I had been anticipating this moment for over a year and not once did I consider that I would have to be handcuffed. At that moment I had my first inkling of how little I knew about surviving in prison."  To read the rest of this article, please click   here. (page 8).   Video: Our Main Stage Presentation At The Nantucket Project  We are grateful to The Nantucket Project for its continuing support of our ministries. Click here to view Video of Jeff's Main-Stage Presentation. (17:27) Guest Blog: Journey From Darkness to Light, By Melissa Tanis - Child of an Incarcerated Parent   Melissa's first guest blog for us, Child of an Incarcerated Parent, (Jan. '15) chronicled her reunion with her father who was sentenced to 50 years in prison - it became our most-viewed blog ever! Below is her follow-up blog that brings us up-to-date on her incredible and heartwarming story. __________  "...As I wrote in my last blog post, my dad had cancer and at the time and was in remission. But in March of this year I got a call from my dad like I normally do except this time, he told me his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. The doctor said he had at best, two years to live. He has responded well to chemo but it will be an ongoing treatment and at different moments, he is very vulnerable to infection. If it's not the cancer that gets him, it could very well be a minor infection that his weakened immune system is not able to fight off. When I first found out about his cancer returning, everything seemed meaningless. What do we talk about now? How do we catch up on 20 years of not knowing each other in at best two years?" Click here to read the rest of Melissa's guest blog.  Guest Blog: Financial Fraud: Top 13 Crimes, by Brad Reid, Prof. of Law & Ethics   We've greatly admired Brad's articles for the Huffington Post, and asked him to guest blog for prisonist.org. __________ "Many years ago I provided commercial banking legal representation to a bank president. One day, out of the blue, he asked me to backdate some documents. Thankfully, I declined. Some years after I entered the academic world, he and the bank's leadership team were convicted of federal fraud offenses. Additionally, the bank collapsed. A number of families were devastated. The president was an energetic businessman and doubtless never imagined this outcome to his career. What happened? My observation, at a distance, is that he was caught-up in the emotional high of great success and came to believe that cutting a few corners was okay because rapid growth would cover any issues. The "just this once" rationalization is a powerful seduction..."  Click here to read the rest of Brad's informative guest blog.  Donations: Thank You For Your Support & Generosity! We are grateful for all donations made to our ministries. Donations can be made by Credit Card/PayPal or by sending your check payable to: "Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc." P.O. Box 1232, Weston, Connecticut 06883.  We are a CT Religious Corp. with 501(c)(3) status - all donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Blessings, Jeff & Lynn Rev. Jeff Grant, Director & Lynn Springer, Founding Advocate  Contact Information:   If transformation and redemption matter to you, a friend or a family member with a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue, please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package by mail, email or via Dropbox. The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope. Prisonist.org: Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project are missions of Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.   Mailing Address:  P.O. Box 1232  Weston, Connecticut 06883  (o) 203-769-1096 Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Minister/Director jgrant@prisonist.org (m) 203-339-5887  Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr  Lynn Springer, Founding Advocate, Innocent Spouses & Children lspringer@prisonist.org  (m) 203-536-5508 George Bresnan, Advocate, Ex-Pats  gbresnan@prisonist.org  (m) 203-609-5088 Jim Gabal, Development  jgabal@prisonist.org  (m) 203-858-2865 Babz Rawls Ivy, Media Contact  mediababz@gmail.com  (m) 203-645-9278 Faith & Dignity for the Days Ahead

White-Collar Ministry, by Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, A Riches-To-Rags-To-Redemption Story

Prisonist.org: Faith & Dignity 
for the Days Ahead
Blogs, Guest Blogs & News

White-Collar Ministry

A Riches-To-Rags-To-Redemption Story

By Rev. Jeff Grant, JD M Div

 

We are grateful to The New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church for the invitation to write an article for its monthly newspaper, The Vision.  This article appeared on page 8 of the December 15, 2015 issue, was published online and was distributed to all of its 450 churches in New York and Connecticut.

__________ 

On Easter Sunday 2006, I reported to Allenwood Low Security Corrections Institution in White Deer, Pennsylvania. A guard came out and I showed him my court orders – he did not seem happy about my reporting on Easter Sunday.  As we went through the metal door he spun me around, held my hands behind my back and slapped handcuffs on them. I had been anticipating this moment for over a year and not once did I consider that I would have to be handcuffed. At that moment I had my first inkling of how little I knew about surviving in prison.

Next, I was brought to a section called R & D, Receiving & Discharge, that felt very much like its title – a place for FedEx packages. I was processed and then told to strip naked. While I was standing naked in this cold room, on a cold cement floor, a man entered who I would later learn was the Head Lieutenant. He basically ran the day-to-day operations of the prison. Looking me up and down, he then asked me if I was the lawyer. I told him no, but that I used to be one. This answer seemed to please him. Then he told me that there were 1500 men on his compound, and I was to be the only lawyer, although there were some jailhouse lawyers working out of the library. He advised I’d have no problems on his compound if I stayed out of other people’s legal affairs and I took no money or favors from another inmate. And then he said that I was a short-stayer and he suggested I just do my time and go home without a problem. He asked me what I thought of that? I was standing there naked. I told him that making a few dollars from other inmates was the last thing on my mind.

I was given an orange jumpsuit to wear, re-cuffed and marched across the compound to the SHU (Segregated Housing Unit). When I got to the SHU, it looked like something out of the worst prison movie I had ever seen – dark and dimly lit, with rows of metal doors with tiny holes in them. I wondered if this was what the entire prison was like, if it was a holding area, and how long I would be there. Inside the cell was a narrow bunk bed – barely wide enough for a grown man’s shoulders – a combination toilet and sink, a desk and a chair. And there I met my first “cellie” – a black man, about 50 years old, with dreadlocks down to his waist. When I came in, he didn’t acknowledge my presence at all. He just pointed to the upper bunk. I understood – that was mine.

His first words came about ten minutes later when he told me to move fast. The sound of a cart moving down the hall meant we had no time to lose. The slot on the metal cell door opened, and very quickly, four covered trays of food slid in through the slot. I understood what he meant by moving fast. If we didn’t catch the trays they would have dropped to the floor and the food would have spilled all over. He caught each tray and quickly handed them to me. I put them on the desk. We sat on the floor, dividing the dinner between us. I had already decided that I was going to lose the forty pounds I had put on in the months leading up to my incarceration. Looking at the trays, I saw there was a little meat of some sort, and lots of bread, potatoes and rice. Starches were apparently the mainstay of the diet – I asked him if he wanted my potatoes and rice. We became friends in no time. His name was Raoul.
 
Almost everybody who was designated Allenwood was first brought to the SHU, Raoul explained. There was no way to know how long I’d be in the SHU, but Raoul suspected that I wouldn’t have to wait long: first timer, middle age, and most importantly, white. I later learned that some inmates are kept in the SHU “waiting for a bed” thirty days or longer. I only had to wait 16 hours before I was released onto the compound.

__________

After serving almost fourteen months in a Federal prison for a white-collar crime, I made the decision to dedicate my life to individuals and families who were suffering the shame, guilt, remorse and ostracism that accompanies white-collar and nonviolent crime.  I led addiction recovery and prisoner reentry groups.  I was accepted to Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and earned a Master of Divinity with a focus in Christian Social Ethics. Then I had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors of several prisoner reentry nonprofits. I was then called to serve as Assoc. Minister and Director of Prison Ministries at an inner city church in Bridgeport, CT.  My wife Lynn Springer and I then founded the Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project, the first Ministries in the U.S. created to provide confidential religious/spiritual support and counseling to individuals and families with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues - before, during and upon reentry from prison.

We offer spiritual solutions for material problems, and shepherd people and families all the way through the incarceration and reentry process to a new and transformed life of productivity and helping others.

If you, a friend, or a member of your church community are experiencing a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue, or if you would like to discuss a speaking or guest preaching opportunity, please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package by mail, email or via Dropbox.

The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope.

 __________

Progressive Prison Project/

Innocent Spouse & Children Project
 

Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Minister/Director
jgrant@prisonist.org

(o) 203-769-1096

(m) 203-339-5887

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Lynn Springer, Founding Advocate, Innocent Spouse & Children Project
lspringer@prisonist.org

(203) 536-5508

George Bresnan, Advocate, Ex-Pats
gbresnan@prisonist.org
(203) 609-5088

Jim Gabal, Development
jgabal@prisonist.org
(203) 858-2865

Babz Rawls Ivy, Media Contact
mediababz@gmail.com
(203) 645-9278   

 

  If transformation and redemption matter to you, a friend or a family member with a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue, please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package by mail, email or via Dropbox. The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope.