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Ellen Carter has a dark, smooth complexion that enhances two straight rows of pearly teeth, and her smile could light up a dungeon. Weekly, it lights up a jail.Often mistaken for a 30-year-old, this grandmother of eight is striding back and forth across the tan and chocolate-colored tiles in the chapel room at Cook County (Ill.) Jail.Carter paces emphatically through rows of rough-hewn benches, demanding the attention of 100 women in steely blue scrubs. As a prison preacher, and soon-to-be director of the first Koinonia House aftercare program for women, Carter exemplifies the trends and struggles of prison ministry to the ever-increasing female population of American prisons.The incarceration rate for women in the U.S. has climbed 516 percent since 1980, and now Christian prison ministries (which traditionally have focused on men, the overwhelming majority of prisoners in America) are running to catch up with the alarming growth. Between 1985 and 1995 the number of women in prison almost tripled from 40,000 to 115,000. Currently 130,000 women are behind bars.

To combat these numbers, Carter and hundreds of women like her are redefining prison ministry, so that it includes more women ministers, a deeper level of discipleship, and aftercare that supports women as they try to reconnect with their families and communities.Ideas about how to best help female offenders are changing. Richard Bundy, director of the Billy Graham Center's Institute for Prison Ministry at Wheaton (Ill.) College, says women's prison ministries are independently developing three similar characteristics: Many women's ministries are being restructured to focus on one-on-one discipleship. Many are also developing aftercare opportunities to help released inmates back into their communities. And the majority of ministries are led by women."In the past I've sensed that many women didn't feel they had a place in prison ministry," says Bundy, "but now that women are being encouraged to preach and teach other women, you see women from the local church level getting involved in a really personal way."Virginia Hutto, founder of the Women's Criminal Justice Network Ministry in Gatesville, Texas, matches female in mates with church mentors from across the state. Individual discipleship not only allows the women to ground their beliefs in biblical truth, but also teaches them to value relationships with other Christians. That will make them more likely to continue in their faith and join a church after they leave prison.Tanya Cartwright says New Faith Baptist Church in Madison, Illinois, has experienced the fruit of such discipling relationships. "We put on worship services, Bible classes, and counsel inmates individually," Cartwright says. "You see God's grace when people accept Christ, get off of drugs, and start building relationships with their children from prison. But when they get out of prison and they are still attending our church and you see them bringing their children, you just have to say 'Wow.'"The Women's Criminal Justice Net work is also helping local churches develop programs for prisoners moving back into their communities. Buckner Baptist Benevolences in Dallas sponsors the equip program (Enhancing Quality and Understanding in Incarcerated Parents). In conjunction with a shelter where women live for six months while they find work, equip helps women restore relationships with their children. In the past two years, 200 women have obtained stable jobs."Kids are often the one thing a mother cares enough about to change her life for," says Elizabeth Friar Williams, author of a journal article, "Fostering the Mother-Child Bond in a Correctional Setting." Be cause of the success in secular family visitation programs, the National Advisory Com mission on Criminal Justice urges prison authorities to encourage family visits. Prison officials can help by providing transportation from public train and bus depots and providing semi-private surroundings conducive to strengthening family ties.Danny Franklin knows the benefits of family prison visitation firsthand. A former inmate, Franklin now spends every Saturday driving a rickety church bus from Gospel Wake Covenant Church in Chicago to Dwight Prison downstate. Between 70 and 80 percent of his passengers bring children to visit their incarcerated mothers."When I was in prison I saw how hopeless people turned to bad stuff like prison gangs and drugs when they felt like nobody cared about them," Franklin says. "I know it makes a difference and gives you hope, just like knowing Jesus."Franklin is praying for money to buy a used van so his ministry can continue."These families are so grateful and patient," Franklin says. "Sometimes when I have to cancel because the bus is broken they encourage me!"Many larger national prison ministries are looking at successful secular programs like Girl Scouts Behind Bars and discussing new forms of prison ministry. Twice a month in seven states mothers and daughters attend a Girl Scout troop meeting together within the jail. Mothers also spend supervised time working on troop projects with their daughters. They do science activities, make crafts, and discuss self-esteem topics including drug education and sexuality.Prison Fellowship, one of the largest and most respected national prison ministries to both men and women, now has a three-member team researching how it can develop national networks such as the Angel Tree outreach at Christmas, which provides toys to prisoners' children. Another Prison Fellowship goal is to help local churches already involved in prison outreach to develop aftercare support programs.Mission to the Americas hopes to help develop an aftercare program for women in Illinois.

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January 10 2000, Vol. 44, No. 1