May 8, 2000
Criminal justice grows in Texas
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___HOUSTON--"Look and see what God has wrought" in criminal justice ministries, Jim Young urged 700 participants at the seventh annual Restorative Justice Ministry Convention April 28-29.
___"In the spring of 1990, about 30 people involved in prison and jail ministries met ... to discuss the growing prison population and to see what God was doing in the jails and prisons," said Young, restorative justice ministry coordinator with the Baptist General Convention of Texas church ministries department.
___When that small group met, 561 people in the state were accredited to do prison and jail volunteer ministries.
___Across that 10 years, the prison population has roughly tripled. According to figures released last month, 220,253 people are incarcerated in Texas-- about 1 percent of the state population.
___Texas has the largest state prison system in the nation.
___Young observed the arrival of the prisons brought an entirely new set of opportunities for ministry and evangelism.
___"If the churches would not go to the mission field, then the mission field had come to the churches," he said.
___Christians involved in the ministry saw "three people groups" to be ministered to--offenders and their families, correctional officers and others who worked for the system, and victims, Young said.
___"We began to look at a restorative justice system, which includes restoration, salvation, forgiving, restitution."
___The network that began in 1990 changed in 1994, when Emmett Solomon retired as director of chaplains for the criminal justice department and became coordinator of criminal justice ministries in the BGCT church ministries department.
___In 1997, volunteers created a network to help churches, denominations and ministries provide training in the mission field in the prisons and jails.
___Two businessmen--Gene Grounds of Dallas and Ladd Holton of Fort Worth--became directors of the Criminal Justice Ministries Network of Texas.
___In 1999, Young, who had been chaplaincy administrator with the criminal justice department, went to work for Texas Baptists as coordinator of restorative justice ministries. Grounds joined Texas Baptist Men to lead in the area.
___"The BGCT wanted to help churches and associations in providing ministries to those touched by the problems of crime," Young said.
___Also last year, the network expanded its focus to become Restorative Justice Ministries of North America and asked Solomon to help expand the concept to other states as well.
___Just before the annual gathering this year, the Restorative Justice Ministry Network of Texas elected Young as executive director, a post he will hold while continuing to serve on the staff of the BGCT.
___The ministry has grown from the 561 accredited volunteers serving in the prisons and jails of Texas in 1990 to more than 26,000 accredited volunteers in the last fiscal year.
___"Of those, more than 22,000 are religious volunteers," Young said.
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