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09/07/05 - Talbot Hall Bible Study Program Changing Lives
Star-Ledger

Washington, Sep 7 -

Talbot Hall Bible Study Program Changing Lives Summit church volunteers minister to inmates, and feel their own reward

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

BY ROZ GUIDITTA

For the Star-Ledger

James Hill earned his name when he was abandoned as an infant on a hilly James Street in Newark. That marked the beginning of an up-and-down existence.

Despite his humble beginnings, he turned his life around with the help of a foster mother and eventually became a Newark police detective.

After eight years on the force, he left to start his own successful construction company in Green Brook. But misfortune intervened again, and Hill faced an arrest warrant for eluding two police officers. He eventually turned himself in.

He spent 2 1/2 years in prison and was sent to Talbot Hall in South Kearny in July.

Now 43, Hill wants to put his life back together at Talbot Hall, a privately run assessment and treatment center for drug-addicted and alcoholic male prisoners, or for those who commit lesser offenses, such as Hill.

Opened in 1998, it is part of a nationwide trend in corrections that encourages prisons to keep violent offenders in jail and to send substance abusers to treatment programs.

It combines cognitive therapy with the 12-step approach, which forms the basis of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar programs. The state Department of Corrections uses Talbot Hall to evaluate all inmates who are close to completing their incarceration.

From there, the staff determines if the inmates, who are called "residents," are ready for freedom, more treatment or a halfway house. Their days are tightly structured with classes, life skills training and peer group discussions. The average stay is 90 days.

Although the men are allowed to wear their own clothes and sleep in dormitory-style rooms without bars, a high-mesh security fence never lets them forget their incarceration.

But every Sunday night, residents like Hill know they can rely on the volunteers from Fountain Baptist Church in Summit to be there to conduct Bible classes and once-a-month services.

"I was short on faith when I arrived," said Hill. "But these men showed me that I forgot about God."

Deacon Bill Stevens, 65, of Scotch Plains is one of the five men the residents expect to see Sunday nights. A recent retiree from Schering-Plough in Kenilworth, where he was maintenance supervisor, Stevens has been involved with the prison ministry for 19 years.

When a friend invited him to join, he was hesitant, but not because he was fearful.

His reluctance was based on the similarity between his military background and the total regimentation of prison life. "It's even tougher inside (the prison system) than the military," said Stevens, who served five years in Vietnam while with the Air Force.

It became apparent, however, at his first visit why he needed to go "inside the walls." According to Stevens, few of the representatives from religious organizations who visited inmates were Christians. The majority of the inmates, who are African-Americans, also remarked that they wanted "to see more of their people coming out."

The volunteers "all feel a reward when we leave," said Stevens. "The inmates are becoming a new creature. They're not the same as they were. You can see it. You can feel it. It's through the word of the Bible that these men are changing."

It's about forgiveness, too.

"What they've done in the past is over," he continued. "Man probably won't forgive you. ... It's not as easy for man to forgive. But God has forgiven you."

The Rev. Kenneth Cooper, 34, of Monmouth Junction has seen spiritual transformation in the men and forgiveness as well. But he has also seen men return to Talbot Hall or to prison after they've been released.

"Doing God's work is difficult in general," said Cooper, who attends a master's of divinity program at Drew University in Madison, as well as working full time for WABC in Manhattan. "You know there's change and power in Jesus Christ, but you see inmates fall short again."

According to Alan Hoffmann, director of Talbot Hall, 5 percent of the residents are paroled upon leaving, but the majority go on to halfway houses. An "alumni coordinator," a former resident, helps the men find jobs and a place to live, as well as providing whatever other help they need.

Despite witnessing recidivism and the difficulty the men face reintegrating into society, Cooper continues to teach the word of the Bible. "There is still hope. I try to engage them to think critically about the text."

The Rev. Sidney Smith, 58, of Vauxhall, who was with Fountain Baptist Church for 12 years and is now an associate minister at First Baptist Church in Hillside, also spoke about hope and encouragement. Bringing the Gospel to men who have never heard it can be "a life-changing event," said Smith, who is a part-time student in the master's of divinity program at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

It can also "bring back a flood of memories to those who once went to church with family," he said.

That's especially poignant considering that "some of their families don't want them to come back," said Smith. "This is almost a guarantee that they'll be incarcerated again." He explained that Bible study can show the residents that "there's a better way than what they're used to."

Coleman Rodgers, 68, of Fanwood, has also been affected by conducting Bible study at Talbot Hall.

A retired information technology systems manager with a master's of business administration, he said, "(But) for the grace of God, I could be in there myself. You try to lift them up, but you get lifted up yourself."