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 Mario 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 recently convened their quadrennial Congress of APACs in July.  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.”