christmas behind bars - County Times - Southern Maryland Online

11 Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Calvert Gazette
STORY
Jail Chaplain to Meet
By Corrin M. Howe
Staff Writer
With Each Inmate
On Christmas
Day, Chaplain Jerald
Graham will
stop by every cell
in Calvert County’s
Detention Center
to give out Christmas
cards and visit
with each inmate.
It is another way he
and other volunteers
serve a part of the
population locked
away from sight and
memory.
Although
the time between
Thanksgiving and
the New Year is
called a time for
giving and spreading
cheer, the average
citizen, church
group or service
organization cannot
serve the local prison population on the holidays.
For the health and safety of everyone
involved, Graham says there are very specific
rules about what can be brought into the jails
and all volunteers have to go through training
first.
Graham is part of a volunteer ministry
called Point of Change Jail and Street Ministry,
Inc. out of Waldorf founded by Chaplain
John Lewis. In 2008, Charles County Detention
Center welcomed Lewis as their Chaplain
after he’d served as a volunteer there.
Graham heads up the Calvert program
Point of Change runs 17 “sessions” a
week in Calvert’s Detention Center. The majority
of the sessions are religious services,
10 to be exact, and the others are educational
in nature including a program called REST
– Rehabilitation Empower Structure Transition.
Residents on their way out of the center
and back into the community can apply to
enter into the program which teaches computer
skills, anger management, goal setting,
resume writing, interviewing skills, first aid
and other programs
Since the program started in Calvert
none of the inmates have returned to jail,
something Graham and Lewis are proud of,
considering the national recidivism rate is
43.3 percent of inmates return within three
years of being released.
Point of Change is volunteer driven and
has a budget which comes strictly from donations.
At this point it has brought in nearly
$22,500 in annual revenue but has paid out
over $26,000 in expenses.
“We do the work and have faith” that the
financial needs will be met, said Graham. He
would love to see local churches willing to
donate even $25 a month to the work to help
them “keep their head above water.”
Graham volunteers nearly full-time and
works shift work at the Metro. His wife also
has a full-time job which provided for his
family.
“Seeing lives changed for the better
means more than any dollar amount,” he said,
when asked how he can invest so much of his
time administrating 75 services a month.
A number of local churches support the
jail ministry as well. They send volunteers to
run Bible studies and educational programs.
He said he has one volunteer who has been
there 20 years.
Anyone wanting to come in to volunteer
has to go through a three to four hour class
after a clearance check. After the class the
volunteer will receive a badge. The training is
“very important because the officers go over
the dos and don’ts.”
The reason for providing training sessions,
especially at the local jails, is to help
the inmates develop skills and make better
choices when they return. Otherwise, “they
return back to the same community which got
them in trouble to begin with,” said Graham.
Space is a limiting factor in the number
of programs they can offer. He can only
schedule 12 inmates at a time for a session
of any kind, religious or educational. Each
week he puts out a list and inmates sign up
for something they want.
Graham said if he could “write a check”
he could purchase a facility in which he could
help with at-risk youth and work with them
before they make bad choices. At the same
facility he would run follow up programs for
those transitioning out of jail.
He would also partner with more local
churches to provide the “after care” necessary.
It could be as simple as churches providing
classroom space for his volunteers to
continue teaching computer skills, job readiness,
matching positive mentors up with at
risk youth and helping them find productive
channels for their energy and creativity.
“All the youth we work with say they
made the wrong choices. We teach them not
to allow peer pressure to get them down the
wrong path,” said Graham.
The programs in the jail are even helping
those not participating, according to Graham.
“They see the lives changing and they want to
be a part of that.”
By Corrin M. Howe
Staff Writer
‘What Teaching In
Prison Taught Me’
Everybody has a story to tell. Merle
Morrow, like many, experienced a life changing
event on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a civil
rights attorney working for the Department of
Justice conducting an investigation at a men’s
maximum security prison. As she was escorted
to where she had to go, the guards walked
her through a chapel where several inmates
were preparing a service.
“The men in here are as devoted to their
country as people on the outside, but many
can’t write an intelligent letter to us – their
government – to ask for help,” she said. Then
she asked herself what she was going to do
about it.
Long story short, she left her job on Sept.
28, 2001. By April 2002, she had received orientation
to become a GED teacher at Maryland
House of Correction, commonly referred
to as the Cut. She spent three years at a maximum
security men’s prison in a room full of
men convicted of significant crimes. She was
alone with them twice a week with the closest
guard down the hall and around the corner.
“It was a one room school with educational
levels from 1st to 12th grade. I didn’t
know enough to panic. I’d never taught before
and had a room full of students. We had fun in
the classroom. These men worked hard. They
did their homework. They wanted to grow as
human beings even though some knew they’d
never get out,” said Morrow, who wrote about
her experience in a book called “So Am I:
What Teaching In Prison Taught Me.”
The first thing she had to do was convince
herself that these men “were fellow
children of God” and worthy of respect. So
she went in right away, ready to look them in
the eye. The first year and a half she worked
with her students, she didn’t know what kinds
of crimes they committed. However, when
they asked her to write a book about them, to
show the world that they are just like everyone
else only having made bad choices, Morrow
realized she needed to learn about their
crimes.
Once she started reading the trial records,
she went through a “spiritual struggle”.
“How do I go back into the classroom?
These men had become my friends. It is different
having a friend as a rapist than it being
a stranger,” she said.
On the other side of her struggle, she realized
“these men aren’t one thing or another.
They were more than their horrible crimes.
They wanted to be better people. They wanted
to give back.”
While she was working there, she had
seen conditions which troubled her. She wanted
to make a change, but didn’t know how.
Then she had a spiritual director tell her, “You
have to change hearts before you can change
systems.”
She hopes her book will change hearts.
“Even if my book only changes two, it will
be a start.”
Her students asked her to write the book
about their experiences. She agreed and decided
to donate the proceeds to at risk programs
for youth at the request of her students.
She would love to come talk to groups
and organizations who want to learn more
about her experience and how they can help
change one heart at a time by working with
youth before they end up in prison or helping
to educate those in prison so they don’t
return.
Contact her at: A Closer Connection,
LLC, P.O. Box 70, Owings, MD 20736 or
www.teachinginprison.com.
Morrow agreed to write some of
her students with questions from the
Calvert Gazette. Here are some of their
thoughts:
How can society help prevent people
from ending up in prison?
“Society can start programs, open
up jobs, schools. Teach people to learn
to do the right things in life. Teach them
about going to church, treat people with
respect.” - James Hill.
“Help youth to be interested in/
like different types of trades and apprenticeships
programs. Which provide
a great education as well as a
great means of living, having recover
programs for adults, more affordable
educational classes, more interactive
self-help groups.” - Donti Hayes
“Society needs to invest money
in the kids; recreation and vocational
training.” - Thomas Maddox.
“I believe it starts with at risk kids.
Because the at-risk kids that enter juvenile
facilities, three out of four become
adult offenders. So society must give
them what they need while they are
young.” James Wells.
What kinds of programs are
needed in prison? If you could control
prison programming what would you
provide?
“Reinstitute an emphasis on rehabilitative
programming. Since the
majority of prisoners are destined to
return to society it seems logical and
practical to have them better prepared
to return to society.”
“More programs that will enhance
a person’s educational level and
programs that prepares men for employment
and gives them life skills.”