When Adrian Cavala signed up for our new One Parish One Prisoner reentry program, he sent me a private prison email. He had his doubts. I’d known him on the streets over my last decade of pastoral work among gang members. We’d gotten to know each other better when squeezed into a small utility closet at a distant prison, when the guards didn’t have a chapel room for our visits. Adrian could imagine trusting a full-time gang chaplain like me, but not “normies”: regular folks, mostly white, from the large evangelical church in town who’d signed up to become his One Parish One Prisoner reentry team.

This program matches former inmates with local churches for ongoing support and friendship.