Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I write this not as a theologian composing a dispassionate treatise, nor as an activist nursing a grievance. I write as a man who spent five years, five months behind bars, who lost much of what the world considers valuable, and who emerged with a message that I cannot keep silent about: the church is failing prisoners and their families, and it must repent of this failure.

I use the word “repent” deliberately. This is not a management problem requiring a better program. It is a sin problem requiring confession, repentance, and transformation. When Jesus said, “I was in prison, and ye visited me not” (Matthew 25:43), He was not offering a suggestion for an optional ministry. He was describing the criteria by which the nations will be judged. The church that ignores the Christian prisoner is not merely missing an opportunity. It is standing on the wrong side of the final judgment. The church that ignores its obligation to evangelize inside prisons has likewise missed the mark. Prisoners who hear the Gospel, repent, and believe are translated into the loftier Christian prisoner category, placing a greater burden on the church to visit them.

The Failure Is Real

I have described in this book, with as much specificity and honesty as I can muster, what prison is actually like—the violence, the corruption, the despair, the soul-crushing monotony, the destruction of families and finances, the failure of the legal system, the psychological and spiritual damage that persists long after the cell door opens.

And I have described, with equal honesty, what the church’s response to this reality looks like from the inside: sporadic, superficial, theologically inadequate, and ultimately insufficient.

Churches send Bibles but not toothpaste. They visit once and then disappear. They judge the incarcerated rather than serve them. They spiritualize the suffering of prisoners’ families rather than meeting their practical needs. They assume the criminal justice system is fundamentally just and treat anyone caught in its machinery as damaged goods. They offer platitudes to the broken and programs to the desperate, when what is needed is the full weight of the body of Christ—presence, provision, protection, and persistent, unfailing love.

How to Fix It

The solution is not complicated. It is costly but not complicated. Here is what the church needs to do.

For pastors and elders:

Preach on Matthew 25:31-46 at least once a year. Let the words of Christ be heard without qualification or dilution. “I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Appoint a deacon or ministry team specifically responsible for prison ministry and prisoner family support. This is not a volunteer initiative to be led by whoever raises a hand. It is a core function of the church that requires dedicated leadership, budgeted resources, and pastoral oversight.

Include prisoners and their families in the church’s prayer life. Read their names from the pulpit. Pray for them by name. Make the congregation aware of their existence and their needs.

Visit prisoners yourself. Do not delegate this entirely to volunteers. The presence of the pastor or an elder communicates something that no volunteer can replicate: the institutional commitment of the church itself.

For deacons:

Establish a benevolence fund specifically for prisoner families. Budget for it annually. Administer it with the same care and accountability you bring to any other financial stewardship.

Assign individual families to specific deacons for ongoing support. The support must be personal, consistent, and sustained. A one-time visit with a casserole is not the ministry of the body of Christ. It is a gesture.

Coordinate practical services: transportation, childcare, household maintenance, grocery delivery, legal referrals, employment assistance. Inventory the congregation’s skills and resources and deploy them strategically.