V Kairos is a Christian, volunteer, lay-led, ecumenical, international prison ministry, in which men and women volunteers bring Christ’s love and forgiveness to incarcerated individuals and to their families. Kairos consists of three programs: the Men’s Inside and Women’s Inside Ministries begun in 1976, Kairos Outside begun in 1991 and Kairos Torch begun in 1997.
V The Men’s and Women’s Ministry addresses the spiritual needs of prisoners. Kairos volunteers go into prisons in teams of 30 to 40 to pray, share the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, share meals and fellowship with the incarcerated on a one-to-one basis. The first visit is a three-day event, during which time the team teaches a short introductory course on Christianity. Subsequent visits are monthly half-day reunions with the prisoners over a twelve-month period.
V Kairos Outside provides spiritual healing to families of the incarcerated, who often feel that they too are "doing time". Spouses, parents and other relatives of prisoners meet with teams of Kairos volunteers to share their faith and gain strength from Christian community.
V Kairos Torch provides a ministry to youthful offenders, the most rapidly growing segment of the prison system. Because young people between the ages of 13 and 19 are generally housed in smaller institutions than adult offenders, smaller-sized teams participate in this ministry.
V Kairos Ministries currently operates in 350 prisons in 31 states in the U. S and 8 additional countries: United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and Canada. More than 170,000 incarcerated men and women have been introduced to Kairos, since its inception. The current number of volunteers exceeds 20,000 per year.
V Kairos Outside is active in 19 states, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa, and includes 35 programs. Kairos Torch is operational in 10 locations.
V Kairos Prison Ministry affects our communities in many positive ways. Lives have been changed and former inmates return to our communities as more responsible and less violent citizens. Former inmates become better spouses, parents, employees or volunteers and give back to society. Tax payers benefit!
V In 2008, Kairos volunteers donated over 3 million volunteer hours to the various departments of corrections here and abroad. If you multiply 3 million times the minimum wage in the USA of $6.55 per hour, our ministry donated over $18 million in volunteer time. Volunteers paid an additional $2 million for supplies, bringing the total donation to $20 million.
V Last year we held 618 weekend programs in 309 ministry sites: 502 Kairos weekends, 80 Kairos Outside weekends and 36 Torch weekends. The remaining volunteer time was spent in pre-weekend and post-weekend trainings and activities.
V The program also has a very favorable effect upon volunteers. Many volunteers acknowledge that the team training, with its emphasis on introspection, honesty, sharing and community, enhances their spirituality. Kairos Prison Ministry serves our communities and reduces the number of victims by changing inmate lives. Mary of the inmates who participate in the entire Kairos program return to our communities as better and less violent citizens, thereby making our neighborhoods safer.
V Kairos programs have gained the respect of the correctional system too. In a study of 505 inmates released from Florida prisons, the recidivism rate was 15.7% among those who had participated in one Kairos session, and 10% among those who had participated in two or more Kairos sessions. The non-Kairos control group in the study had a recidivism rate of 23.4%.
V The savings to the taxpayer are substantial. As one former prisoner put it: "It cost the government about $1,000,000 to try me and to imprison me for several years, but a $100 program keeps me out".
