A few months back, I had the honor of speaking at the “Faith and Justice” night sponsored by Trinity Anglican Church. Members of the community had gathered to hear from HeartBound and the Police Alternative Division (PAD) about ways that we as a church community can support our justice-involved neighbors. I am one of those people who cannot be quiet when I see injustice. I feel as if it is my duty to speak up. What I see happening in the Georgia prison system today is sim

I’ve taught Lamar for nearly two years now. In those two years, I would bet good money that he’s only finished a third of all our assignments. There’s a part of me that wants to kick him out of class. To offer up his spot to someone else – someone who will do the work, who will actually try. But then there’s a part of me that knows there’s more to the story. I learned the “more to” Lamar’s story the other day. I was glad I hadn’t listened to my head and followed my hear

We can’t will our way to a less cruel world. Tweeting, putting up a yard sign, even voting, these things are good, but they aren’t going to get us to where we need to be. The just, kind, healthy world we all desire can only arrive one way – through love. God’s love. I was reading about Jericho the other day. I recounted the old Veggie Tales episode of Jericho, the cucumbers and tomatoes marching around the city, blowing their horns until the walls crumbled down. My how

I’d been putting the lesson off for weeks and weeks, finding ways to stall. Since August, a group of 35 men and 17-year-old boys at Burruss Correctional Training Center had been learning financial literacy with HeartBound. The end of December was rapidly approaching and there was one subject we had yet to cover. Taxes. Finally, we could wait no longer. The time had come to teach the most dreaded lesson of all. Knowing that so many of our students hated math, I expected

I glanced at my phone. “Missed call from Zach.” I gulped. Unscheduled calls from former students elicit some trepidation. Over the years I’ve come to learn that sometimes, no news is the best news. Surprise phone calls are often accompanied with a problem – issues with a probation officer, troubles finding stable housing. I called back. Zach’s voice was gleeful. “Yo! Spence! Whaddup?” Still, I was nervous. I apologized for missing his call, explaining that I was in

The last guests were filtering out the doors. All was peaceful, our first slow moment of the day. Then, a loud cry from down the hallway. I dropped the box I was carrying and turned towards the noise. A woman was hunched over, hand over her mouth, crying. Andrea stood next to her. What was happening? I looked at Grace with alarm. “That’s her in the photo, Spencer.” At this woman’s feet was an oversized photo printed on foam board. The photo showed a woman singing in

Let me share with you how I know that we’re doing something right. Roadblocks are getting thrown up left and right at the facilities we work in. You see, Evil is trying to stop Good. But it won’t succeed. I was tempted to list and explain every roadblock, a sort of “airing of grievances.” I wanted to complain and show you just how unfair we’ve been treated lately. But I won’t. I’ll just tell you straight up - working inside prisons has not been easy lately. Not that

I wish I could say that getting out of prison is the easy part. That once you’re released, life is so much better. That those hopes and wishes you had dreamt up during your incarceration become actualized. That life becomes normal again. That family, friends, and your neighborhood welcome you home with open arms. But release from prison is not a new beginning or a second chance for many of the men, women, and teenagers we work with. Instead, it’s often just the continua

We wish you could’ve been with us at Whitworth Women’s Facility—but in a way, you were. You’ve been with us all along. Grace, Andrea, I, and HeartBound board members Lucy Fugate and Lara Woods gathered to celebrate the third graduating class of the seminary program. In case you didn’t know, HeartBound funds the first and only seminary program for incarcerated women in the state of Georgia. To date, 16 women have received associate degrees and 11 have received bachelor’s deg