c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J., and a fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J.)

(UNDATED) At first glance, Annie Smith’s visage reflects the life-weary expression of one who has been there and done that. Yet, once she begins to share her story _ how she worked, reared three children and earned a college degree, all while her husband was in prison _ she betrays the joy and wonder of one who has experienced the miraculous.

Annie was perhaps the most compelling speaker at a four-day series of Christian revival services held at the prison where I serve as chaplain.

Speaking on behalf of “Outmates,” the family support component of the New Jersey-based Community Network Prison Ministry, she represented what she refers to as the “forgotten victims” of crime _ the families of the inmates.

As Annie noted in a later interview, the families of criminal offenders are as victimized by their loved ones’ crimes as the rest of society. Though they generally have neither control nor prior knowledge of the crimes committed, they are often ridiculed and forsaken by family, friends and neighbors.

Such was Annie’s experience when her husband, Smitty, served two prison terms for sexual assault in the 1970s and 1980s. The second-youngest of 12 children, Annie had been reared by her mother and older siblings who taught her the beliefs and values of the church. Yet she says the church abandoned her and her children in the wake of her husband’s crimes.

Indeed, if not for the intervention of the Community Network, which leverages the financial and in-kind services of a broad array of Christian churches, the Smith family might well have experienced the devastation common to the families of prison inmates.

At Smitty’s request, the Rev. Leroy Holmes, the Community Network’s executive director and himself an ex-offender, began to visit Annie and the children. Though uninterested at first, Annie was eventually persuaded by her oldest son’s increasing involvement in the activities at Holmes’ church, which serves as the network’s base of operations.

At her first meeting with the Outmates, she was amazed at the degree of similarity between her story and those of the other women gathered. Equally important, they provided Annie and her family with a variety of other services, including food and clothing assistance and counseling for the children.

In addition, one of the network’s benefactors persuaded her church to support the Smith family financially, as a missions endeavor. This additional support enabled Annie to complete her undergraduate degree in criminal justice and eventually secure employment with the Volunteers of America as the director of a halfway house.

It was also instrumental in enabling Smitty to obtain a position as truck driver upon his release from prison, and purchase a home less than two years later.

Yet the Smith family’s testimony is as much a cautionary tale as a success story.

Smitty’s religious faith, which had helped sustain him while in prison, was eventually undermined by his inability to quit using heroin. Even worse, the success he obtained upon his release from prison introduced him to new temptations. Marital discord was inevitable, and the couple eventually separated.

For Annie, the lessons to be gleaned from her odyssey are numerous.

She believes the only way to successfully reunite inmates and their families is to address the needs of each.

Inmates, for example, must be made to understand the ramifications of their incarceration for their family’s lives. Not only have their wives and children been forced to endure the embarrassment and shame of their crimes, they have also had to fill in the gap left by the inmates’ absence. Thus, rebuilding the trust necessary to re-establish a former inmate’s role in the home is a process that may require counseling for the entire family.

A concomitant need is for the local church to provide the ex-offender with a strong support network upon his release from prison. Such a network works best when it focuses on providing a system of accountability for the former inmate in a mutual covenant with him and his family.

For Annie Smith, the struggle continues. Her children are now grown and, though one remains incarcerated, all share her Christian faith. She now works as a teacher’s aide for a local middle school and serves as a mentor for the school’s students and their parents.

She says she sees herself in the lives of the mothers whose mates, like Smitty, are often incarcerated. Yet, her greatest impact, she believes, is on the children. She says she is often greeted by former students. They often hug her, saying, “Thanks, Mrs. Smith. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

DEA END ATCHISON