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She had been in a maximum security prison for almost seven years of a 20-year sentence. Leslie Brown missed seeing her six young children regularly. She knew they were living in her Chicago home with their grandmother, but the pain of separation persisted.

On December 23, 1988, she rejoiced when then-governor of Illinois Jim Thompson granted her clemency, allowing a family reunion. But she didn't forget the women she'd left behind.

With her church, First Baptist Congregational, she began visiting prisoners—putting into practice the Christian commitment she'd made a month after landing in prison in 1982. With support from Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and the MidAmerica Leadership Foundation, in 1992 her work blossomed into a ministry called Support Advocates for Women. Leslie's focus was taking children to visit their mothers in prison, without charge. Support Advocates also began providing motivational classes to women in the Kankakee prison in 1994.

That year, the Holy Spirit and an inmate Leslie had been visiting encouraged her to consider something more. The female prisoner, soon to be released, asked if she could live with Leslie. At first Leslie balked. But then "the Holy Spirit told me, 'Why not? You have all these empty rooms.'" So, she and her children welcomed the woman into their home.

Since then she's brought 150 women into her three-story, 10-bedroom home, accepting them on parole directly from prison. Notably, her state-recognized halfway house, offering several support services and opportunities for spiritual growth, is the only program in Chicago providing housing for women parolees with children of any age and women on house arrest. Leslie's Place, as it's known, has become a place of healing: only 5 percent of the women have returned to prison.

"My main goal is to help them become stable, so they can stay out of the system and become tax-paying, sober citizens," says Leslie, 46. "I love the Lord and I love to work for God."

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