Health & Fitness
Charles Colson and Prison Fellowship
A recognition of 750-plus volunteers in corrections - VIC.
As a Missouri real estate broker, I was contacted by a prospect for land in this area, which resulted in the contract for what eventually became Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC). I don't remember who I dealt with, but he was under much stress as he had not come up with an answer and time was running out.
As we looked the property over, we finally walked past a spring and upward to a spot on the hillside where we could see the tract and he seemed to feel it would work. As we sat on a ledge of rock near the spring I mentioned there might be some rattlesnakes nearby, which seemed to move him faster in his decision and the rest is history.
Time passed and the prison was under way. Then I answered an ad for the AmeriCorps position of (VIC), Volunteer Coordinator at the new prison, and as I wanted to make it the best in Missouri, I applied and was accepted. As time passed and I had enrolled and trained more than 750 volunteers in Corrections, my two-year grant from AmeriCorps also neared its end, so I was hired as a Corrections Officer to continue the work.
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After one more year in VIC, I was relieved of my work as the choice of new management seemed to move away from the heavy load of VICs. I served doing regular CO work until I retired in 1990.
During much of this same period I was aware of Charles Colson's work and problems in the Nixon Era and his prison term where he started Prison Fellowship after his experience.
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One of his visits to many prisons included MECC where he heard of our work. One of our operations was known as "Youth Awareness" where prisoners would put on programs available for outside youth who were having problems would be given a chance to see what might be in their future. The prisoner who headed the program was doing 29 life terms and did a good job training other prisoners who did the show.
Sometime in the Career of Prison Fellowship he used our program at MECC as part of his message and I met him that day of his visit. It is an education that few citizens are aware of in this land of opportunity and misfortune, and now 30 years later I get to inform you, free of charge.