Prison & Jail Ministry

Read and download the 20-page PDF of the 2022 NBA Impact Report, featuring stories from NBA programs, partners, and Disciples leaders.

Our current justice system and practices aren't working, restorative justice may offer an alternative.

Restorative Justice encourages the humanization of those who have caused harm and provides better alternatives than our current incarceration system.

This webinar explores the importance of considering the employment of people who are returning from our prisons and jails and those who are in recovery.

Join our experienced panelists for a conversation on why the corrections system has become so dysfunctional and broken.

These resources were created to offer people of faith an opportunity to worship together and reflect on the experience of immigrants in the Bible and the experience of immigrants living in the United States.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

What does the Bible say about capital punishment? Should followers of Jesus Christ, who was executed himself, oppose the use of capital punishment?

Join us as we discuss the impact of the increasing number of women, particularly women of color, that are spending time behind bars and work to address solutions

We are excited to announce the newest member of our staff and the justice work they'll be involved in.

Prison & Jail Mission Specialist Rev. Dean Bucalos explains the link between this theory and mass incarceration.

Upcoming webinar guest Savvy Shabazz shares his experience with the prison system in Kentucky and his struggles of trying to find employment after returning home.

Sometimes, dystopian movies have eerie resemblances, not just to what the world could be, but what it actually is writes Tialisha Lumpkin.

I have been intrigued for a while by the prison abolition movement. Wikipedia defines the movement as “a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutionalization.”

The current White House administration has made it a priority to come up with new anti-immigration rhetoric and policies at every turn. In response, churches across the country are stepping up in support of immigrants, learn more about what you can do below.

I invite you to watch a powerful new film series, created and produced by The Marshall Project. “We Are Witnesses” gives voice to those whose lives are enmeshed in the criminal justice system and provides a rare 360-degree portrait of crime and punishment in America today.

An active summer of art exhibits and sacred conversations around incarceration, creativity, and healing.

With stops in Texas, Ohio, and California, we traveled with Rev. Terri Hord Owens for a variety of partner visits, special events, and conversations.

Rev. Nora Jacob gets a glimpse into life at a federal detention center.

NBA Prison and Jail Ministries Guest Blogger Ria M. Riesner shares her reflections after attending the 2017 General Assembly with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

The more I walk and experience what I call a Gospel of community, the more I have faced and struggled with principalities and powers of this world that devour and destroy the most vulnerable around us.

It is the ongoing, ever-present, sometimes exhausting work that seeks both to save and rescue those being hurt and harmed and to dismantle the systems that are causing such pain and brokenness.

Social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value. I have come across some amazing ideas that incredibly innovative people have launched into reality.

What happens when a convict has paid his price to society? Many leave prison only to enter a revolving door. I’ve volunteered in prison ministry for 18 years. Several years ago, we celebrated when one of the inmates was about to be released. A few months later, he was back behind bars. What happened?

Creativity and protest, celebration and publicity—all of these, rolled into what we’re calling the InsideOut Art Show, will be unveiled October 7-8, 2016, in our fresh expression of ministry and mission in South Pomona, California.

Having served in a ministry capacity in a wide variety of environments, one of the most difficult places was prison as a prison chaplain.

Mission Behind Bars and Beyond has been blessed to have received a grant from the NBA Incubate Initiative to work with a development coach.

What does it mean to bring a beautiful African-American boy into the world today?

In April, eight prison and jail ministry practitioners gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, to attend the “Reaching Individuals Behind and Beyond the Bars” conference and to kick off the first NBA Prison and Jail Ministries Peer Group

Many people who end up incarcerated suffer from co-occurring disorders, “the coexistence of both a mental health and a substance use disorder.” Many are woefully ill-equipped to manage a healthy, productive lifestyle once they are released from places of incarceration. Who steps forward to provide assistance and guidance?

On March 29, faith leaders, students, and advocates gathered in Lexington to urge Kentucky lawmakers to bring an important criminal justice reform bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Rev. Dean Bucalos shared these remarks.

In many ways, those who have committed sex offenses are the lepers of our time. Living, but not living fully, in society. While many crimes are heinous, most all of those labeled as sex offenders return to our communities. The question is, “Where do they go?”

We have named it “the school-to-prison pipeline.” It’s emerged over the years. What we have discovered is that the pathway to prison is paved early on in one’s life, and that a disproportionate number of young people of color are subtly directed along this route.

This past year has brought attention to many important social justice issues, particularly as they relate to prison and jail ministry. As we begin the new year, I thought I would highlight some of our accomplishments in 2015 to remind us of the important work we are about.

The transition a person makes from prison or jail back into society again is almost always complex in its challenges—not only for those who themselves were incarcerated, but also for their families, friends, and communities.

The first time I visited a prison, I was afraid. I was afraid because I thought there were people there who could hurt me. People who had committed crimes, and people who guarded them—who had guns and watched my every move. I was afraid when they asked me to go through security checkpoints where they looked inside my mouth, under my hair, at the bottoms of my feet...my body felt controlled, watched.

For people who are incarcerated, receiving mail is a cherished gift. Letters become connecting points to the outside world. A reminder that they haven’t been forgotten. A penpal ministry can be a low-budget, high-impact way to share faith and hope with those who are incarcerated.

The effects of solitary confinement are being exposed as detrimental and damaging to the mental health of those so confined.