A Life-Saving Prison
Jefferson knows about the lure of crime. Like so many ex-prisoners, he discovered that freedom from confinement does not mean freedom from problems. When he left prison at the age of 32, Jefferson had to find a job despite the stigma of a prison sentence and Brazil’s 9 percent unemployment rate. With 31 percent of Brazilians living below the poverty line, few seem to have sympathy for the prisoner.
Previously convicted of armed robbery, Jefferson could have resorted
to theft. However, unlike the average ex-prisoner,
Jefferson’s prison experience included a firm foundation of biblical
training, emotional support, mentoring, life
skills and work-related education. Jefferson credits APAC (Association
for Protection and Assistance to the Convicted),
PF Brazil’s faith-based prison unit, for his decision to stay
crime-free after his release. “When I thought about
committing crimes again, everything I had gone through came to my
thoughts and I changed my mind,” he says.
For support, he called on his friend Valdeci Ferreira, who serves as PF
Brazil’s Executive Director and current President
of APAC in Itaúna, Brazil. Valdeci took him in, recalls Jefferson, and
even gave him a house key. “That gesture was
very important to me for I realized someone still trusted in me and it
was worth starting all over again,” he says.
Valdeci and all those Jefferson met in the APAC unit gave him a sense
of belonging that he had not known before.
“In the APAC method, love has to be free, constant and unconditional,”
explains APAC founder Mário Ottoboni.
Remembering what he had learned about not only refraining from doing
evil, but serving others, Jefferson
began tutoring underprivileged children and helping out at his local
parish. Eventually he came back to the
APAC unit in the city of Itauna to work with the staff. “All the
precious things I had lost I’ve been getting back, and
more,” he explains, “the trust of my family, freedom, work, respect,
studies, perseverance, God, faith. I owe it all, my life
included, to APAC.”
PF Brazil’s APAC methodology helps prisoners to take responsibility for
the harm that their behaviour has had on others. “It’s a difficult
moment when
we realize how much our likeness of God is deformed by crime,”
Jefferson says.
The first APAC programme began in the Humaita prison in San Jose dos
Campos, Brazil, in 1973. Today, there are more than 80 APAC
prisons throughout Brazil and 21 of those prisons have no guards. The
government will fund 10 new APAC facilities in the state of Minas
Gerais this year. Throughout
the years, APAC continues to boast record-low recidivism rates. A
recent report indicated that APAC graduates have a recidivism rate of
only 10% versus Brazil’s national
average of 85%.
In the midst of this record-breaking expansion, PF Brazil convened
their quadrennial Congress of APACs in July. The
nearly 400 participants included judges, governors, justice
authorities, officials from different states, political leaders
and four APAC prison choirs. PF Bolivia also participated in the
conference because of their plans to develop a
faith-based unit in the near future. PFI President Ron Nikkel spoke at
the event, noting that PFI “owes a debt of
gratitude to the founders, members, supporters and the recuperandos
[prisoner participants] of APAC in Brazil.”
“You have created a model—an example that powerfully demonstrates that
there is a better way,” Ron told the
enthusiastic crowd. Today, PFI is encouraging the adaptation and
replication of Brazil’s APAC model around
the world so that more men like Jefferson can find life in
prison.
“I thank God for this opportunity to be part of this beautiful and
extraordinary work for the redemption of
convicts that benefited me when I was fulfilling a sentence of 13 years
and 10 months of imprisonment,” Jefferson
says. “I am certain that without APAC, I would have died long
ago.”
This article first appeared in the August 2008 edition of Prison Fellowship International's Global
Link newsletter.
August 2008
