Church Helping Parolees Make a Life Beyond Bars

One guarantee about California’s prisons: Most who leave them aren’t out for long.

Here’s how bad it is, according to the state Department of Corrections: 74% go back for at least a second prison term--and the vast majority of those don’t even make it past their parole date before being nabbed again. Orange County is fourth highest in the state, with more than 6,000 from here currently serving repeat terms.

So when you see someone come along determined to buck those odds, it’s encouraging. It’s also hard not to be a bit skeptical. After all, no magic formulas have worked before.

But if grit and guts and guidance from a higher power can make a difference, then maybe those based at the Lake Hills Community Church in Laguna Hills have a fighting chance.

About four years ago, its members created what they call “Re-Entry Ministry Inc.,” which has now spread to other churches. Re-Entry provides a support network, mainly financing and friendship, to help those leaving prison stay out. Its numbers are not yet impressive--it’s helped only eight ex-prisoners. But its success rate, compared to the norm, is off the charts--eight of eight have remained trouble-free parolees.

So far.

“I think it would be a mistake for us to expect perfection,” said LouBe McIver, one of its board members. “But we think our formula has a good chance of working.”

Re-Entry limits its prison contacts to those who have already become Christians and are recommended by their prison chaplains. But that doesn’t mean it’s taking just the mildest cases. One of the eight, a woman with drug-related problems, has a history of being in and out of prisons and jails her entire adult life. One man has served 14 years in prison from three separate convictions.

“Another of our partners [the church’s term] is fighting deep depression,” McIver said. “That’s the hard part for so many; they get out with nothing to go to, so they find the world quite daunting.”

Re-Entry was born out of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries. Several at Lake Hills were trained to go into prisons to work with inmates.

But one of them, Newell Stickler, said he realized after his initial prison work that “it’s on the outside where we can be the most effective.” When others talked about creating Re-Entry, he was quick to join. Its goal: Keep its new partners from returning to crime.

If California’s recidivism rate is sky-high, it’s in part because the system predetermines it, said Bruce Birkeland, now Re-Entry’s board president: “They turn the prisoners loose at midnight, with only a few dollars, and tell them, ‘OK, go be successful.’ Most make mistakes, and on parole, one mistake means you’re right back in.”

Re-Entry’s first idea was to set up a house for its ex-prisoners. But the church members learned they’d get staunch opposition not only from neighbors, but the Department of Corrections. Parolees are ordered not to fraternize with other parolees.

So now Re-Entry tries to help with individual housing, job-hunting and tasks such as getting a driver’s license. But mainly, it provides a mentor.

“We spend so much time with them, some of their parole officers have asked us if we’d take on other cases for them,” McIver said with a laugh.

In exchange, the ex-prisoners have to agree to a one-year contract in which they will attend church weekly and remain free of romantic relationships.

Permit relationships, McIver explained, and too many ex-prisoners fall back in with the crowd that got them into trouble in the first place.

All of this group support costs money. So two years ago, Re-Entry set up a thrift store in the Saddleback Plaza on El Toro Road. Many of you may have seen its large “Re-Entry” sign out front without knowing what it referred to.

“Right now we’re just to the point where we’re paying our bills,” McIver said. “It’s been a lot of work just to get this far.”

One bright spot is that other area churches have expressed interest in joining in. One is the Saddleback Valley Community Church, which already has a ministry that works within the jails of Orange County.

“What we’d like to see is a marriage of our program and Re-Entry,” said Rob Giles, a jail chaplain with the Saddleback church. “I’ve been around enough inmates to know that most of them do want to turn their lives around. They just don’t know how on their own.”

And the system doesn’t help, these church people contend. Some officials within the prison system are so negative it almost guarantees recidivism, McIver said.

“They expect these men and women to fail,” she said. “So when we come along to help, it’s hard to get them to recognize us as a viable group trying to help.”

Time will have to determine just how much help these church people can be. But how can we not wish them well? What chance would these ex-prisoners have without them?

One of the Re-Entry 8 got a job when he was released, only to learn that three ex-wives had gotten his wages attached, all for child support. Re-Entry helped get him a lawyer to help set up an equitable payment plan. Imagine, sans Re-Entry, how this fellow would have handled that kind of pressure. My guess is the three women may have wound up fighting over no check at all. And their ex might have become one of those statistics: back in prison, because that’s where most ex-prisoners wind up.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.