Charles Topetzes, director of the State Board of Pardons and Parole, says the partnership allows churches to offer spiritual support to inmates as well as practical help with employment, education, and other necessities. He said his agency is anxious to begin working with churches that are interested in providing transitional assistance to parolees. Church teams will have their first training session in late September. Father Clements founded One Church One Inmate to provide the loving support of a church family for inmates who are willing to break unhealthy lifestyles and want to live rewarding, crime-free lives. The concept is built around a church team using three to five members of a congregation to form a team which provides a variety of services beginning while an inmate is in prison and continuing through his release.
Time involved is approximately one to two years and is divided into five distinct phases.
Visits by church teams to the prisons to see their particular inmates begin. At least four visits are projected. From a physical perspective, this is a very dramatic change for individuals who have been away from the routine course of life for many months or years. They're unaccustomed to even getting or preparing their own food and many other things most people take for granted. In addition, there is a whole series of psychological changes that must be made as of their release.