Friday, March 31st, 2017
ABOUT TIM
I gave a talk last night at Metro Hope Ministries, a Christian transition house in South Minneapolis. Tim approached me after the conclusion, eager to tell me something that was on his mind.
“The cost of recidivism [committing the same crimes and returning to jail] is more than $30,000 per prisoner per year. The state would save millions of dollars a year if they funded Christian facilities like this instead.” Tim had been in prisons 25 years of his life and was paying his own way to stay at the New Hope Center.
The rate of recidivism is reduced dramatically by men and women who go to such places as Metro Hope or Teen Challenge or other Christian treatment facilities. I’ve noticed in my prison ministry at the Wright County Jail that men who show up for Gideon Bible studies on Sundays and become new Christians or rededicate their lives to God have the best chance of not returning to jail. In my 12 years of prison ministry, I can’t remember even one inmate who has reappeared at our Sunday sessions. Praise God.