Prison Ministry Volunteers Offer Faith

Eugene San Jose said he understands the life-changing power of religion.

The Simi Valley construction worker was a career criminal until about four years ago when, he said, he established a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and turned his life around.

Now, he and other volunteers who attend Sonrise Christian Fellowship church in Simi Valley want those who are serving time to find spiritual enlightenment. To give them that chance, the church’s prison ministry program shares the Gospel with teens and young adults incarcerated at the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo.

“Nearly all of those here are serious felons and it means a lot to them to have church volunteers come in and talk to them,” said Al Palomino, a public information officer at the California Youth Authority facility.

Families of the more than 700 CYA inmates often live far away and cannot afford to visit. So about 400 active volunteers, mostly from local churches, make regular visits to the 40-acre CYA campus to offer spiritual direction and emotional support that is very much anticipated and appreciated, Palomino said.

“The volunteers are cherished” CYA volunteer coordinator Evelyn Boon said. “They are very important friends to” inmates.

The church’s prison ministry director, Tom Gustafson, said volunteers are matched with inmates of the same gender at the youth facility, where there are female wards ages 13 to 24 and male wards from 17 to 24. Younger boys are transferred to facilities in other cities, including Whittier and Stockton.

Despite sometimes having youthful and angelic faces, the wards are still criminals and prison ministry volunteers are taught to protect themselves from scams and even extortion attempts.

Palomino said visitors are prohibited from giving anything to an inmate and are instructed not to mail letters for them, make phone calls on their behalf or do any similar favors.

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Still, a kind-hearted volunteer could easily be persuaded to give a prisoner a few dollars for something the volunteer is made to believe the inmate desperately needs. Then, the volunteer is asked to give more money--$20 or more. If the volunteer refuses, the ward may threaten to turn the volunteer in to officials for the earlier payments if the volunteer doesn’t keep the money coming.

Oxnard barber Curtis Smith, a member of the Seventh-day Adventists who has been involved in prison ministries for more than 30 years, said he is familiar with prisoners who use Bible verses to entice lonely women to send them money and to become romantically involved.

These and other scenarios are why Gustafson and Sonrise Fellowship have a 20-hour course to teach volunteers how to effectively share God’s love with inmates, ex-prisoners and their families.

Once volunteers complete the training, they are ready to visit a prison facility to lead Bible study groups or to become a one-on-one mentor without having to worry about their personal safety, Gustafson said.

“I’ve never felt safer than when I’m inside,” he said. “When I teach the Bible to a class of 100 men, I feel like I have 100 bodyguards.”

Palomino concurred the environment within the youth facility is very safe. “I’ve never heard of an incident where a volunteer has been harassed or threatened,” he said.

Gustafson said he only worries about the well-being of an occasional teen heckler who might disrupt the class with a snide comment. The resulting glares of the other wards send a clear message that rudeness will not be tolerated.

San Jose, who first became a ward of the California Youth Authority when he was 17, said he understands how some teens are not as teachable as others. He was raised in Long Beach as one of nine children.

“All the others turned out great. I was the only weirdo in my family,” he said.

San Jose recalls how his life got off-track and he became a habitual thief and a heroine addict. He accepts personal responsibility for adopting a life of crime, which he said began with poor choices he made in picking friends when he was in junior high school.

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He lived a life of crime for about 27 years and served 14 years in federal penitentiaries--for a variety of offenses, including armed robbery and heroin smuggling.

During his last stretch behind bars--in Wasco prison near Bakersfield four years ago, San Jose said, he knew it was time for a change. Another felony would be his “third strike,” and could result in a life sentence. In the month before his release, San Jose said, he turned to the New Testament for help, and found it.

“Now I am a different person. I am not the same person I was before,” he said.

When San Jose was released in September 1996 he was given $200 and transportation to Ventura County, where he lived before his incarceration. When he arrived in Simi Valley, he was initially homeless and found a minimum-wage job, rode a bike and slept in a different church every night as a part of a winter homeless shelter program, he said.

After about two years, people began to trust him again and San Jose was eventually found a job in construction. Now he supervises heater installations.

“I used to have a punctuality problem. Now, I’m the first on the job and the last to leave,” said the 53-year-old, who also teaches Sunday school classes and gets to spend time regularly with his 12-year-old son, Sean.

San Jose’s contribution to the prison ministry is limited to training other volunteers because he is not allowed to visit a prison himself for at least five years, he said.

Harold Turner, who has volunteered at the CYA through Sonrise’s prison ministry facility for 14 years, said he has seen many others who have had a big change of heart. That is what has kept him going back for so long, he said.

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“It gives us the opportunity to give the gift of ministry and to show the heart of the Lord. To give hope, encouragement, spiritual support and a sense of understanding,” Turner said.

Steven Schwartz, another Sonrise volunteer, started having a weekly Bible study class at the CYA facility 18 months ago. He finds those who attend to be people who are easy to relate to, who have made terrible decisions but are redeemable.

“I became involved because I wanted to become part of the solution instead of sitting back and complaining about lawlessness,” Schwartz said.

One of the young men who took Schwartz’s Bible study class left the youth facility and is attending a Bible college with hopes of someday becoming a minister.

“He was a former gang leader. He had leadership skills that were directed into something positive,” Schwartz said.