In this image provided by volunteer Doug Price, Kairos Prison Ministry volunteers meet with inmates during one of the 3 1/2-day courses in Christianity. Volunteers heed Jesus' words in Matthew 25:36: "...I was in prison, and you came to visit me," said Price, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Youngstown State University who has volunteered at the Trumbull Correctional Institute in Leavittsburg for 20 years. (Submitted photo)

LEAVITTSBURG — When Doug Price, associate professor of chemical engineering at Youngstown State University, was looking for a local mission project to become involved with back in 2002, little did he know that desire would land him at the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg.

Vernon Brown, who served as deputy warden of special services at TCI at that time, convinced Price to come on board with a program he was bringing to TCI called Kairos Prison Ministry. Price accepted the invitation and since that time has devoted countless hours over the past 20 years as a volunteer team member for the Kairos ministry.

“Kairos is a 3 1/2-day course in Christianity,” Price said. “It is an introduction to what Christianity is all about.”

“Kairos” is a Greek word meaning in “God’s special time,” indicating an opportunity for participants to reconsider their life choices. Volunteers take seriously the directive from Jesus in Matthew 25:36: “…I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

LEARNING KAIROS

Price went into TCI not knowing what to expect. The only prison environment he had been exposed to was what he had seen on television or in the movies. He wondered, “How can I make a connection with someone who is incarcerated?”

As one of the 45 volunteers serving on the leadership team for the weekend, Price participated in hours of preparation in which he got to know the other volunteers and prepare spiritually for the experience.

During a Kairos weekend, 36 inmates are cleared by the warden to participate. “Many having zero knowledge about Jesus and Christianity,” Price said.

The Kairos Prison Ministry states its mission is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and productive citizens of their communities.

Kairos states that the prison environment is “a dark place where prisoners face violence, anger, gangs and loneliness daily.” The Kairos volunteers step into this darkness and reach influential inmates — especially gang leaders — through talks, discussions and chapel meditations. Prisoners learn they are worthy of God’s love, light and grace and that no matter who they are or what they have done, God forgives them, according to the Kairos mission statement.

Volunteer team members frequently talk about their own lives and struggles, which creates a connection with the inmates. One important topic is forgiveness and inmates are challenged to shed hostilities they may harbor with an inmate or corrections officer.

The inmates are given a plate of homemade cookies and asked to identify one person in the compound to give the cookies to while asking either forgiveness from them or offering forgiveness for something that person had done to them.

“Offering or accepting forgiveness is where a lot of inmates carry a lot of baggage,” Price said.

After the 20-minute talks “table families,” which consist of six inmates and three team members, have discussion.

“Inmates are bombarded with songs, ministry, talks and home-cooked meals,” Brown said.

The weekend culminates in a Sunday evening “graduation” in which families and friends of the inmates hear testimonials about what the weekend meant to them and how their lives have been changed. Brown said it is a powerful event “to have families hear their incarcerated loved ones speak spiritually and hear how the experience has changed them. Tears are shed as they talk about where they were and where they are now.”

MINISTRY EFFECTIVENESS

Kairos notes that the United States leads the world in incarceration rates, with 2.3 million people currently in the nation’s prisons — a 500 percent increase over the past 30 years. In 2014, the U.S. represented 5 percent of the world’s population but housed 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people.

Kairos has been shown to reduce recidivism rates and has gained the respect of the correctional system. In a study of 505 inmates released from Florida prisons, the recidivism rate was 15.7 percent among those who had participated in one Kairos session, and 10 percent among those who had participated in two or more Kairos continuing ministry sessions.

The non-Kairos control group in the study had a recidivism rate of 23.4 percent.

There is also a significant reduction in violence, both inmate on inmate and inmate on staff, after Kairos, according to the study.

When inmates of Kairos have “graduated,” they aren’t left to go it alone. Kairos realizes the importance of guided follow-up sessions with inmates when it is completed.

“The real significance of Kairos in not in the weekend, but in what occurs afterward,” Price said.

The whole idea is to build a better community inside the prison where inmates can meet on a regular basis afterwards in what is called “Prayer and Share” groups. In these weekly two-hour follow-up sessions inmates are asked questions such as where did you encountered Christ over the past week and was there a time this past week when it was hard to show Christ’s love?

Price said that these groups “build staying power. While leadership is brought in, the groups are designed to be eventually led by inmates and be self-directed.”

“It is in these groups that you can see the inmates growing and how you can tell lives have been changed,” Price said.

EXPANDING THE MINISTRY

In 2002, when Brown made the move from TCI to becoming deputy warden at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown — known as the Supermax — he took Kairos with him.

“I went from deputy warden to a humble servant at the institution where I worked. It was a wonderful experience,” Brown said.

The Supermax had “the worst of the worst inmates,” he said. In 2011, Kairos was offered to death row inmates. Eighteen death row inmates were guided through the weekend experience.

Some might ask why Kairos is offered to those not getting out. Brown answers, “At some point in time, if you are a Christian, everyone must be given the opportunity to be forgiven. They also need to be given the opportunity to hear about life after death.”

When asked why he would make that kind of investment in the life of inmates Brown said, “A lot of the team members had something in their backgrounds from which God spared them, and Kairos is a way of giving back. Everybody makes mistakes, and everybody deserves a second chance.”

Kairos volunteers come from a variety of professions and faith communities. It is also a worldwide organization operating in 37 U.S. states and nine countries. Volunteers conduct more than 600 weekends in prisons and communities annually in the United States and worldwide. There are also more than 100 prisons worldwide which want the Kairos program, but don’t have the volunteers or resources necessary to make it a reality.

Kairos also is held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

For more on Kairos and volunteer opportunities, visit www.kairosohio.org.