Why We Serve Prisoners

Our mission field is more than 2 million people.

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.3 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails — a 500% increase over the past thirty years.

In 2014 the U.S. represented 5% of the world’s population. But it housed 25% of the world’s incarcerated people.

Number of Men Incarcerated in 2013: 1,463,454
Number of Women Incarcerated in 2012: 113,605
Number of Youth Incarcerated in 2013: 54,148 (in both correctional institutions and adult prisons)

The prison environment is a dark place, where prisoners face violence, anger, gangs and loneliness daily.

Kairos Prison Ministry volunteers step into this darkness to hold a 3 ½ day weekend, with the majority of participants made up primarily of negative leaders within the prison. Through talks, discussions and Chapel meditations prisoners learn that they are worthy of God’s love, light and grace. That no matter who they are or what they have done, God forgives them.

When a former negative or gang leader accepts Christ, it can influence the very atmosphere of a prison for the better. As the Kairos Christian community inside a prison grows and begins to gain influence, the incidence of violence often decreases.

Kairos programs have gained the respect of the correctional system.

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 continuing ministry sessions.

The non-Kairos control group in the study had a recidivism rate of 23.4%. Reduction in recidivism rates result in reducing the cost to society of further imprisonment (approximately $30,000 per year per prisoner).