Useful resources

The most useful handbook available today for those interested in caring for ex-offenders is the 'Caring for Ex-Offenders' handbook for churches produced by Holy Trinity Brompton.  You'll find 10 chapters :

	1.	Introduction
	2.	Getting ready to work with ex-offenders
	3.	First steps
	4.	Proceeding with caution
	5.	Employment issues
	6.	Discipleship and support
	7.	Prisoners out on license
	8.	Working with sex-offenders
	9.	Working with young-offenders
	10.	Understanding issues of drug and alcohol misuse

Holy Trinity Brompton also host an annual 'Caring for ex-offenders' day.   All the talks and seminars are taped and are available from their bookshop (Please phone their bookshop on 020 8581 8255 for the latest prices).   Titles of the 2001 conference seminars are :

	Alpha in prisons - Nicky Gumbel & Emmy Wilson
	Prison overview - Paul Cowley
	Christians in prison - Geoff Phillips
	Christians leaving prison - Paul Cowley
	The way forward - Sandy Millar
	Pre-release steps - Amanda Lee
	Ex-offender/Church contract - Paul Cowley
	Young offenders - Geoff Phillips
	Supporting a prison chaplain - Emmy Wilson
	Working with prisoners' families - Myra Fulford
	Victim support - Eluned Santos
	Security and letter-writing - Thelma Ambler & Anne Mason
	Housing & rehabilitation - Wendell Smith
	Employment - Virginia Goff, Keith Stewart & Godfrey Allen
	Discipleship & support - Paul Cowley & Emmy Wilson
	Lifers and license - Francis Prittie & Margaret Gateley
	Understanding drug misuse - Ken Checinski
	Working with the mentally disordered offender - David Walters

I would personally recommend the 'Christians in prison' talk by Geoff Phillips.

Books
Top of the reading has to Charles Colson's book 'Justice that restores'.   "Charles Colson is a leading US authority on causes and responses to crime.   In 1975, on his release from prison on Watergate-related offences, Colson launched Prison Fellowship, which now serves the spiritual and practical needs of prisoners in eighty-three countries.  Through the work of Justice Fellowship, founded in 1983, Colson works with legislators and policy-makers to promote principles of restorative justice."

Next come Noel Proctor's book 'Light through prison bars'.  Noel Proctor was the prison chaplain at Strangeways prison on Passion Sunday 1990 when the riots started.   "As the congregation of prisoners, officers, chaplains and others rise to their feet to sing 'When I survey the wondrous cross' a young man bursts down the centre aisle, grabs the microphone and sets in motion one of the longest sieges in prison history."

From the wife of Belmarsh prison chaplain David Powe, we here David's story of revival in Lewes prison.  'The cross between thieves' - "describes how the simple and effective sharing of the Gospel can change men hardened by violence, crime and abuse.   This heart-warming book describes the pain and privilege of the work, the reality of the issues involved, and is a challenge to us all about the power of God to radically transform damaged lives in tough places."