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One of the people that preaches in my church once a year is a gentleman named Johnny Moffit. He has seen miracles worked in prisons with changed lives and new direction in hundreds of lives.

While I am sure there are some that will use this to game the system, I found your comment borderline offensive. Some of my closest friends do prison ministry on a regular basis. Some of the people on this very website have been on the wrong side of metal bars in their lives and are grateful for their second (sometimes more than second) chances.

My dad did prison ministry when he was alive.

His preference was those prisoners that didn't have a chance of ever getting out.

Some of those changes in people that can't get out are heart touching.

/johnny

There’s a wonderful pastor in Missouri, (Independence) by the name of David Hairabedian, who spent nearly 20 years behind bars. His life has changed (to God be the glory). There are many who never go back to prison, and in the ministry today because of a prison ministry. I really hate people using the phrase, “jailhouse religion.” Sure, some use it as a crutch, but for others, it is a life-changing event. Jesus told his disciples to preach to the prisoners. I agree with what you said to that poster. I, too, found the comments extremely offensive. Some on here try to be so cute and flippant.

I don't know, but California must be different. I was at San Quentin for 2 years and Solano Prison (Vacaville) for 23 years. I was friendly with a very good Christian prison chaplain, and he did great work behind the walls, trying to win souls to the Lord. I can assure you, however, the VAST, VAST majority of inmates involved in the chapel program, are gaming the system. Most inmates want to be left alone, and when they get involved in the chapel program, usually the other inmates would leave them alone. Northern and Southern Mexican inmate policy, was, if an inmate says he "got religion," they would give him the benefit of the doubt, but would watch him, to see if it was for real or just fake. If it was fake, he would get attacked. In the 25 years that I was in those two California prisons, I only knew of 4 or 5 inmates that I thought were sincere. Were there others? Yes, there are 33 prisons in California, but the majority of them just left their Bibles at the gate when they paroled. By the way, the same thing applied to the Black Muslim converts. Most of them left their Korans at the gate too.

The Chaplains did the best they could do, but criminals have a different mindset than us normal people.