May 26, 1999
Rancher's wife rounds up
resources for restorative justice
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--When she first sensed God's calling more than 15 years ago, Debbie Key didn't know what to make of it, but she never doubted the direction he was leading.
___God wanted the petite wife of a Texas rancher to work with inmates and their families.
___"I knew from the beginning this was what God wanted me to do," said Key, an active member of First Baptist Church in Olney and executive director of Parents and ChildrenTogether, a Fort Worth-based ministry devoted to strengthening ties between prisoners and families.
DEBBIE KEY (right) talks about the importance of family with Sandy Smith, a volunteer in the PACT program Key directs in Fort Worth. Behind them is a photo of Smith's brother, who is incarerated, and his family.
___"This is what God had planned for me, but they didn't know what to do with me back when I was in seminary. I knew I wasn't called to work in a church, be a foreign missionary or marry a preacher. I didn't fit any of the big three."
___Key, who earned her undergraduate degree in criminology from Florida State University, worked for the Juvenile Probation Department while she was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___Through her job, she became involved in the three-month-old PACT program at the Children's Center of the Fort Worth Federal Correctional Institution. In a matter of months, Key had become director of the ministry.
___When it was launched on Mother's Day 1984, PACT was the second parent-and-child program in the U.S. federal prison system, and it was the first to involve fathers. PACT provided direction for the child-oriented visiting center and offered weekly parenting classes for inmates.
___In addition to teaching the incarcerated parents about topics such as child development, nutrition and appropriate discipline, PACT also launched in 1987 an educational program for the children. SKIP, short for Support for Kids with Incarcerated Parents, is a 10-week educational program for elementary school-age children of inmates and other at-risk children.
___More than 3,000 children have completed the program, which includes units on self-esteem, relationships, substance abuse and decision-making. Key developed the curriculum by drawing from many resources, most of them faith-based.
___"I knew God wanted me to go to seminary, but I didn't know why," she said. "He knew what he was doing."
___Last July, PACT entered a new phase of ministry by providing a Hospitality House in south Fort Worth. Since opening the house for visiting families of inmates, PACT has registered more than 350 overnight guests.
___A support group for families and friends of prisoners meets one evening a week at the Hospitality House. A volunteer chaplain leads a Bible study in conjunction with the meeting.
___Much of PACT's support comes from United Methodist churches in Tarrant County, and Key has succeeded in involving everyone from Roman Catholic laity to a Church of Christ preacher. But for the most part, she has been unable to persuade fellow Baptists to support the PACT ministry.
___"There is this stigma attached to inmates and anyone associated with them," said Sandy Smith, one of the few Baptists actively involved in PACT. ?
___Smith is a substance abuse counselor who serves on the PACT board of directors and attends Celebration Baptist Church in Fort Worth. She learned the importance of the ministry the hard way. Her brother, Ricky, is serving time in the federal prison.
___Smith credits the PACT ministry with keeping her brother's family intact. Because of the parent/ child visitation program, he was able to spend hours each week with his young daughter, Rachel. In fact, he actually was able to babysit her while his wife went to school.
___Thanks to PACT, when Ricky is released he will go home to a wife who was able to complete her education and to a 5-year-old daughter with whom he has bonded, Smith said.
___Ricky is one of 6,000 inmates and Rachel is among 21,000 children helped by PACT in the last 15 years.
___Key hopes to involve more Baptists in restorative justice ministry to inmate families. She will lead a seminar on the subject at the Texas Leadership Conference, June 22-24 in Waco, sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union of Texas.
See related story: PARENTS IN PRISON: Texas Baptists step in to help when mama goes to prison____
Frontpage/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
