JoVonne M. Story, from Separate Prisons Reconciliation Ministries Newsletter, March 1997. Used by permission. Ministry with prisoner families begins when we open our eyes and ears to their needs and concerns. Hopefully, as we listen to them, we can discover their needs and concerns, and our consciousness is raised. As individual Christians and congregations, we can help prisoner families by listening to their needs, by discerning the word of God for these families, and by creating active ways to minister with these families.
All families have basic physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
However, because families of prisoners are forgotten victims of crime, their specific needs and concerns are often forgotten. Incarceration breaks family ties and causes an ongoing crisis for children, youth, and parents.