I could not agree more with Lee Goodwin’s July 16 letter, “Jail ministries recommended,” proposing re-evaluating jail ministry groups. I am a new resident of Clark County, but I was strongly associated with the Kairos Prison Ministry for 12 years in Southern California.
As a woman, I could go into the women’s prisons with my teammates and provide a two-day nondenominational “Inside Retreat” of caring, sharing, teaching, and prayer.
The men’s team in Kairos would go into the men’s prisons, and provide the same services, then follow-up with helping them get skills, a job, and new friends and support so when they were released, they could find a different path in the future.
If Clark County jail officials would contact the California prison officials, they would find that the recidivism rate was absolutely turned upside down with those under Kairos inside or outside support.