Melvin Seals was always honored to deliver prayers on behalf of his classmates during the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) re-entry program Family Nights. The events are designed so that relatives of inmates can lend support to prisoners on pace to complete a 120-day training before their release from parish prison.

Seals, known to his fellow inmates as “Rev”, says he never had any family to attend, which is a requirement for inmates to participate in Family Night. But he was granted permission to take part because of his ability to pray and touch people in an extraordinary way. In August 2011, one such person moved by his prayer was Carolyn Lebrane-Tilton, who was in attendance as a representative of Union Baptist College and Theological Seminary and Healing Communities Project.

Lebrane-Tilton, a graduate of Union Baptist Theological Seminary and state director for Healing Communities, a national faith-based initiative, says it was the second time she heard Seals pray; and this time, she decided to have a conversation with him.

She asked him “what are going to do when you get out?” His answer was that he wanted to go to the seminary. “I told him I can make that happen, but you need to be very serious about it.”

A few months after assuring Lebrane-Tilton that he was serious, Seals, a multiple non-violent offender, was enrolled at Union Baptist College and Theological Seminary. He says he considers Lebrane-Tilton to be his “angel” and is not bitter about a lack of family support, acknowledging that his various stints in prison have not given his family much reason to believe in his rehabilitation.

“The Holy Spirit already told me my family wasn’t going to be able to receive me,” he says. “I’m going to have to walk this walk for them to believe in me.”

Striking a Balance between Justice and Mercy

Seals’ story personifies the mission of Healing Communities and their recent partnership with the Union Baptist College and Theological Seminary (which operates as the local site) and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office Re-entry Program. Established and funded in 2006 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, Healing Communities’ slogan is “balancing justice with mercy.”

Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, director of Healing Communities, says one of the goals is for people to look beyond the prisoner and high recidivism rates.

“When people are incarcerated, more than just the inmate is affected. The (inmate’s) family is affected. The victim’s family is affected. The community is affected when a crime is committed and is forced to bare the weight of that individual coming home. So what we wanted to do was design a ministry that would incorporate all of those elements. All of the people that are affected by crime, not just the person coming home,” says Trulear.

He says the emphasis of Healing Communities is on facilitating the rebuilding of relationships between inmates, their families and their communities. The goal is to achieve a “reconciliation and a healing between all parties affected by the strain of incarceration.”

According to Trulear, what makes this approach to prison reentry different from many reentry programs around the country is the inclusion of the church as whole.

“We believe that a more comprehensive approach can supplement and strengthen a mentoring program. Even if there is no mentoring program available, any congregation can build the support network necessary to help facilitate the transition back home.”

The unfortunate truth is that the African-American community is disproportionately affected by incarceration. Black males have a 29 percent lifetime chance of being jailed for at least one year – a rate six times higher than White males. Because the plot is thickened by extremely high recidivism, it’s not hard to understand why Healing Communities has fought to establish sites in 21 states. The need for change is magnified here in Louisiana—a state that locks up 881 of every 100,000 citizens—which far surpasses the national average of 551 per 100,000.

A Long-Lasting Impact

Lebrane-Tilton, who sits on OPSO’s reentry program advisory board, reached out to Dr. Trulear in February to partner his national initiative with the local efforts of the seminary and their existing relationship with OPSO’s reentry program.

The Orleans Parish ’s Office Reentry Program is the first of its kind in its embattled history. In an attempt to make it successful, the Louisiana Department of Safety and Corrections sought the expertise of Chicago native, Leo Hayden, who has worked all over the world with inmates and has more than 20 years of experience.

Hayden’s passion for breaking the cycle of recidivism embodies the mission of the Healing Communities initiative and complements the function of Union Baptist’s prison outreach. In compliance with the state mandated 100 hours of completion, Hayden has put together a 120-day program for inmates that includes life-skills training, job readiness and substance abuse treatment. But perhaps the most novel engagement of them all is what he calls “Open House” or “Family Night”. Here, inmates enrolled in the reentry program are allowed to sit among family members while they go through training and listen to speakers.The purpose is to find the most productive way to make the inmates’ reentry into the community long-lasting.

“It’s actually outreach, but I don’t want to give them another label,” says Hayden. “This is simply an opportunity to sit with your husband, son or uncle and talk about how we can make this transition effective for him.”

It’s also a chance to find out what the family is willing to do, he says, “then, we’re going to put a reentry plan together based on what you need and he needs.”

Orleans Parish Marlin Gusman attends these functions and says he tries to impress the need upon inmates to cherish these moments. At the Family Nights, each inmate is assigned an area where he can sit with relatives and is allowed to enjoy food brought in by his family.

“It’s great to see them holding their children,” he says.

Funded by the Department of Corrections, the program needs more mentors, Hayden says.

Lebrane-Tilton remembers a recent advisory meeting during which Hayden made a plea for male mentors.

“He said that if a person coming out of a reentry program had a mentor, his success rate would be higher.”

She asked “how many do you need?”

He answered “900” because within the next few years Hayden is expected to help 900 inmates make the transition back into society.

Her response: “I’m determined that every man that comes out of that program has a male mentor. I don’t want you to ever be able to publicly say you can’t find any men that would work with these men that are coming back to our community. That’s an indictment against us.”

And men have already begun to answer the call. In one particular class at Union Baptist Seminary, Seals and Minister James Breland share a new curriculum on ministering to prisoners and families. Breland, a minister for 27 years, has also offered Seals housing until he finds his own place. And with many years in prison ministry, Min. Breland knows the perils and stigmas associated with ex-offenders. He contends that when they return home, they do so with “X’s on their backs” and “people are afraid to take chances on them.”

But when it came to “brother Seals, I never blinked” because he knew “God was in his (Seals’) system,” he said.

To Lebrane-Tilton, Min. Breland’s gesture is an example of one person doing something and making a difference.

“He didn’t write a grant. He didn’t have a committee meeting. He didn’t call a whole group of pastors together to discuss it,” she says. “He just saw a need and did something. That’s what everybody can do.”

Seals, who hopes to one day start his own ministry says, “In one community, there can be ten churches and only two actually give back. Imagine if all ten churches organized to make things better. We need to start policing our community, that’s the only way we’re going to save our children.”