>>Coming up on American Black Journal, our series on the Black Church in Detroit continues, this time, with a look at prison ministries.

We'll hear about the services that are offered to men and women who are incarcerated and to their families.

Plus, we'll visit a Detroit church that is helping exonerated prisoners re-enter society.

It's all next on American Black Journal.

Stay where you are.

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(jazzy music) >>Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Stephen Henderson.

We are continuing our series on the Black Church in Detroit, which is produced in partnership with the ecumenical theological seminary and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History.

Today, we're looking at prison and jail ministries in the Black Church.

These programs provide spiritual guidance, referral services, and mentoring to the incarcerated, to their families, and to ex-offenders.

Here's my conversation with Bishop Mbiyu Chui from the Shrine of the Black Madonna and Reverend Samuel Spruill, CEO of the non-profit organization, Hope.

So, I actually wanna start with a little context to talk about how important this issue that we're talking about today is, especially here in Detroit, and I'll just start with a number.

I've seen statistics that say that one in every three African-American males in our city has been incarcerated at some point.

So, if you think about that, that means that a third of the male population, the predominant male population of the city, has had an experience with the criminal justice system, but it means that their families, their neighbors, and their communities have also had some of that experience and are affected with it.

So, I always say that this is not an issue in a community in Detroit.

This is an issue for Detroiters, for all of us.

We all have some incident with the prevalence of incarceration of African-Americans in this country and in this city.

So, with that being the case, the work that you two are doing, which is to provide spiritual guidance and support and mentoring to not only those who are incarcerated but to their families as well, is just so critically important.

So first of all, thank you to both of you for what you're doing, but let's start with how important the work of the ministry is for those who are in jail and in prison.

I'm not sure that everybody necessarily understands that the kind of support that you're giving is so, so crucial.

Bishop Chui, I'll start with you.

>>So, as you said, Stephen, the impact is much broader than people think.

If Michigan has 14% African-American but we make up 53% of the prison population, that's phenomenal.

That's a lot of people who are being affected and then you add in their children, their family, and all that.

So, it's a lot of impact and consequences as a result of that.

So, the work is really important.

It's not just the work that goes on inside of correctional facilities, but what we do in the community to bridge the gap, that families, and especially children, are impacted by the absence of a parent.

You have over, I don't know, 50,000 children who have an incarcerated father and maybe another 3,000 children who have an incarcerated mother.

And again, of those statistics for the state of Michigan, more than 55% of them are African-American.

So, it's a tremendous amount of work that must be done.

>>Yeah, can you talk, Bishop Chui, just a little about what it looks like inside prisons and jails, what a ministry is when you're dealing with bars and guards and all kinds of restrictions?

>>That's a good question.

So, when I first started the ministry in Detroit, I began prison ministry in Houston, Texas at our church in Houston.

And when I came to Detroit in 2000, then I started doing prison ministry here in the city again, and I started at Ryan and Mount Correctional Facilities.

And when I first went in, the first thing I asked myself, I wanted to see what all the other ministries were doing because I didn't wanna duplicate what was already being done.

And so, what I saw was Bible study, worship.

Bible study, worship.

I said, okay, they got that covered.

So, I wanna bring culture, I wanna bring history, I wanna bring spiritual awareness, I wanna bring values.

So, I started to put together programs, design programs, and advanced classes around those themes and trying to especially empower the inmates to understand that even though you are here behind these bars and walls, you still have an obligation and responsibility to your community.

So, how do we bridge those gaps?

What work needs to be done?

So, we started thinking about projects that could happen in the community, even though they were incarcerated.

So, we put together several kinds of programs to address the needs, especially of the children of incarcerated parents.

>>Reverend Spruill, talk about Hope, how you founded it and what the work is that you're doing.

>>Well, let me give a little background.

Thank you for having me, number one.

Hope came as part of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church Ministry.

We do the (indistinct) community to do the outreach into the community, one of them happens to be a person of the ministry.

I have 31 years of experience in jail and prison ministry.

I did the best stop down at Wayne county.

I went from Wayne county to Mount prison and from Mount, out to McComb and had a chance to go to Angolia to be part of their prison ministry, there, and also at Fox Hills in the Bahamas.

So, I've been around prison ministry a long time.

And so, for the impact, it's not community.

It's very devastated, our community.

When a person is gone from the house, from their home, it makes it hard on the families.

And so, what we do is, on the Tabernacle, I started the leadership of Doctor F.G. Samson 31 years ago, and now working with pastor Mason Johnson.

And now, it's just been great work, working with the church.

So, our role is going to the prison, have our Bible studies.

We have a worship service, but while I'm there, and with us givin' them hope, I went out and shared with them about Hope.

When you get out, these are the programs that are available to you.

We have a bakery that you can learn baking skills.

We teach you how to bake and also, they give up a source of income, okay?

And so, along with that is, we teach them about financial training, as well.

It's coming in March and they'll learn about budgeting 'cause it's one thing to get a job, it's another thing to teach a man how to manage his money.

And so, we all encourage them to get their jobs, but I said, get a job but also when it comes to gas, build a career.

And so, at Hope, what we try to do, we try to meet the physical, social and emotional needs of individuals.

We do the partnership with other entities.

Financial parameters end up being dissented for the works of mercy.

There, you can receive your dental care.

You got counseling, there.

You got a food closet, there.

We have all the social needs that a person may need, so I'm giving them Hope.

You come home, contact me, call me.

I wanna help you.

I'm also gonna assign you a mentor.

We do an intake on the individual.

We do a sit down and do an intake on it, find out just what their needs are, and then we map out a short-term goal and a long-term goal for them to try to achieve.

So, that's what we do at Hope.

>>So, that coming home, the idea of somebody who has been incarcerated coming back to the community and trying to start their lives over, find a life that really was taken from them, it's a policy discussion that we have a lot, right, about making sure things are available, making sure there are opportunities.

It seems to me, Reverend Spruill, that you were dealing with this, not only at that level, but at a very personal level, in terms of how that person reintegrates with their family, how that person becomes a member of the community again.

Can you talk about how that'd work?

>>Yes.

What we do is, when it come to Hope for intake, first you get out and you call me right away.

You get released Friday, we'll come, we'll meet at Hope, Friday, along with your family.

You know, some guys, families have passed while they were incarcerated, so it's hard on them, but we try to bring the family together along with the mentor, okay.

This is how we gonna work through these issues.

So, this person, though, they've been going for a while, so let them know, hey, things not the same.

You can go on 15 years and they're alive, they're still staying.

They'd still go back to 50 years ago, but things have changed.

And so, counseling with them, along with their family, walking them through this process, it's gonna be a process and be patient with them, and I'll share the resource that we have to bridge that gap between the 15 years.

It's hard, and this is where a mentor come in, walk alongside their family, and even turn them into a citizen, as well.

>>Yeah, Bishop Chui, I wonder if you can talk some about the family side of this or some more about the family side of this, the loss that families feel when somebody goes away to jail or the prison, but then, I guess, the emotional side of returning somebody and having somebody come back home.

That part of the ministry has to look really different, I guess, from what you're doing inside the prison with people who are incarcerated.

>>Yeah, so both sides of the equation are very important when you talk about impacts on families.

I got a call to come to an elementary school, to a third grade classroom, because a third grader was getting picked on by her peers in the classroom because her father was incarcerated.

So, I went to the classroom, talked to the kids.

I told them a story about a person who was incarcerated and that person's feelings about not being able to see their children.

And then I asked the students, so how would you feel if you were in prison and you had a child that you couldn't see, you couldn't talk to, you couldn't hug, you couldn't guide and lead and be a part of their life?

How would that make you feel?

But I took it even further than that.

I asked them to write down what you would say.

So, they all wrote letters to inmates and expressing their feelings about how they must feel, not being able to be part of their child's life.

So, I took those same letters, I was teaching a creative writing class at Ryan and Mound.

So, I took those letters to the guys in my creative writing class, and I asked them to write letters back to the children, and they did.

And we had this exchange going on for weeks between the kids and the inmates, just to deal with those feelings and those issues and to address some of the emotional wounds.

So, both sides got to see this impact and how it affected the psyches of the kids and of the parents.

But that's the kind of ministry ailing that needs to be addressed on both sides and to address it, I had the inmates come up with ideas.

So, we had something called the childhood month club that we did at Ryan and Mound and every month, we pick a charity to give resources to, that support children of incarcerated parents, and all those kinds of projects and community connections are important to embrace families who are dealing with incarceration and loss, but when somebody comes home, that has to be a whole process, too.

In the Tree of Love Ministry, we try to work on that before they get home and try to create a smoother pathway for them to come home into, because we're connected to so many resources in the community because we've been doing this for almost 20 years, now.

And so, we are able to plug people in, into resources, into employers that work with people who have felons on their record and just try to connect them to the spiritual and emotional resources, as well, to get counseling and guidance because it's not easy just coming out.

You've been gone for 15, 20 years.

Not only do you not know how the world is operating, but you don't have any support system and until you get reconnected, even to the people that you care about the most.

So, it's a tremendous amount of work and it's never ending.

People ask me, when do I do prison ministry?

It's 24/7, 365.

>>Yeah.

>>So, I wanna give both of you a chance to talk about things we might do differently to make this a more manageable issue in our community.

I mean obviously, there are all kinds of criminal justice reforms that we need to enact.

It would help if we could remove the systemic racism from the criminal justice system that sends African-Americans away at much higher rates than other Americans.

But as the people on the front lines ministering to those affected, I wonder if you have things that you would like to see be different.

Bishop Chui, I'll start with you.

>>Well look, there's so many.

(everyone laughing) I'll tell you, when Ryan and Mount closed, that was devastating.

That was devastating.

>>Because people are further away, now.

>>Yes.

Not only to be disconnected from your family, but now you're miles and miles away.

They have no way to come see you.

They have no way to connect with you, and especially now during the pandemic, visitation is very limited and a lot of visitation is done the way we're doing this meeting, right now.

So, it really weighs on the psyche, those kinds of issues that could be alleviated by correct political correctness.

There are over 31 facilities in Michigan.

>>Yeah.

>>Ryan and Mount should have been the last two prisons to be closed, but those kinds of issues I would like to see addressed from the state level.

There's so much more we can do to support the families of the incarcerated at the state level.

So, it's policy changes, but I think it's also providing resources because the amount of money families spend when they have an incarcerated loved one, the phone calls, the Jpay emails, the care packages, it's a tremendous amount of money that people have to pay to support their loved one, and something can be done about that.

>>Yeah.

Reverence Spruill?

>>Yeah, what I would like to see, depends on we're doing now with Southwest community courts, people have an infraction with the law.

For instance, maybe they spend a travel license and make that called trafficking.

Those are misdemeanors.

And so, sending them to Hope again, they have opportunity to do the community service and there, we encourage them.

Okay, do you serve?

What is the better course?

Because that misdemeanor can turn into a felony, escalates, and then begin into incarceration.

And so, I think the system needs to look at, what can we do, instead of just locking people up, can we let them do community service, hook up with the churches and communities and allow them community service and match with a mentor at walk this law aside with a politically correct action, then, rather than just say, "Well, we're just gonna send this person away for one or two years."

That'd be one way to deter incarceration because you're out.

And also, working with Soar, a non-profit that offers reading, tutoring to students in school.

I've been working with them, the church and the community to help get that reading level up 'cause we deal with prisoners according to fourth grade reading level, so that's important.

It's like, prevention.

What can we do to prevent to get to that point of incarceration?

And so, that's real hefty.

The schools get them more involved, get more volunteers in.

They hit them at reading level so when they graduate, they'd go into school and get some type of a skill and learn, rather than just dropping out and be a dropout and end up more like being incarcerated, and then we gotta get another.

So, I'm looking at, on the backend, what can we do on the backend to prevent an individual being incarcerated?

And that's actually more proactive, rather than being reactive.

We spend a lot of money on after they come home.

Well, let's spend some money on prevention, before they get there.

>>Another aspect of prison ministry involves the men and women who are set free from prison, after being wrongly imprisoned in the first place.

United Kingdom Church in Detroit hosts regular welcome home celebrations for exonerated inmates and it helps them readjust to life outside of prison.

Producer AJ Walker has the story.

>>This room of worship is transformed into a place of hope at the Welcome Home Ceremony for people who have been exonerated after being convicted of crimes they didn't commit.

>>To Mr. Darrell C. He's 34 years, a crime he didn't commit.

Darrell Corvus, come on up, please.

>>After serving years, and in some cases decades, their freedom is solidified and commemorated at the United Kingdom Church in Detroit.

Being released from prison after so much time, exonerees could be met with a world that has left them behind.

Instead... >>We make sure these guys have linen, vinyl records, and everything else in between.

We got stuff in here that's got tags on them.

Look, brand new suits, tags on them.

We actually had a whole room downstairs, literally an entire room full of clothing, and we got rid of those.

We donated all those.

Rental assistance, jobs, healthcare, suicide prevention, mental health assistance, you name it, helping them to find their children.

>>Pastor Terrence Devezin is one of the co-founders of the ambassadors group, which holds the welcome home ceremonies for those the judicial system had written off.

>>We were the first contact for somebody who'd been gone for decades.

Why?

Because they just wanted somebody to just walk to them, to say, I'm sorry, publicly, and that I care.

>>Co-founder Maxine Willis has the ceremony's, Not Only Welcome Home, those who had never thought they would see freedom again.

>>It's not only just having welcome home ceremonies and meeting the needs of the exonerees, but it's working hard to erase the stigma.

>>It's about commemorating justice, finally served.

Was it easy?

Is it easy getting companies and organizations to donate and help you do this?

>>In the beginning, it was very difficult because for many, this is their first time even dealing, even contemplating.

Wrongfully convicted?

We were running into brick walls, so we thought, okay, what are we gonna do?

Sit back and do nothing?

So we thought, well, we're gonna have to just roll up our sleeves and with the support of United Kingdom Church, going in our pockets to do what we had to do.

>>The ambassador's group has come a long way since they began their work in 2018.

Now, many people and organizations donate their time and money to make this church a beacon of hope and provide the resources it takes to give exonerees a new beginning.

>>Come on up, Derek.

Come on up.

(crowd applauding) >>The gift of love.

And that's the most important of all time, as we look around and see our exonerees and our special guest here, today.

>>Willis says, these ceremonies also create a bond between the wrongfully convicted, as some in attendance have been in those exact same shoes before.

>>When they see other men who can identify with them, who went through some of the same challenges that they went through, being locked up and incarcerated, seeing these men come and hug them and welcome them home has just been the most rewarding aspect that we've been able to be a part of.

>>Once the welcome home celebrations are over, the resources provided at this church become invaluable because exonerees are facing a world that has dramatically changed.

>>It's totally different.

Everything's changed, you know, for people like me coming out of prison, wrongfully convicted with nothing.

>>Juwan Deering was recently released after serving 15 years for a crime he said from the moment he was accused, he didn't commit.

He was convicted of arson and deliberately starting a fire that killed five children.

He was sentenced to life in prison, but he says he was released after a videotaped recording of a key witness proved his innocence.

>>And they found that the person of the home said that I wasn't the one that was out there.

The same detective who put me in prison was the same detective that interviewed him and had the information all this time.

>>Freedom didn't come easy.

>>I was staying in that law library every day, writing letters every day to people who were in authority that can help me because I was stuck.

>>His efforts finally paid off and someone finally took a harder look at his case.

>>And they contacted my lawyer and that's when the bar had turned because they actually discovered the wrongs that were committed by the prosecution at that time.

>>Deering says, he didn't expect a welcome home ceremony, but he was grateful that he got one.

>>I was a very, very, very happy and very appreciative of Reverend Terrence and his church for giving me that welcome.

I mean, Tommy Herrance was there.

It was a great time, beautiful time.

And I did get a TV, clothes, everything, you know?

Money, I mean, it was beautiful.

So, I was just enjoying the moment and I had to enjoy the money, just in case it was a dream, you know?

(laughs) >>Now that he's home, he spends his time getting used to his new life.

>>Welcome to my office.

And this is the TV that I received from a young lady at the church.

I had to put pictures, frames, different things that I need, but I'm gonna get it going, you know?

It takes one day at a time, you know.

Every day is a dream 'cause I'm free.

I'm home.

>>That is gonna do it for us, this week.

You can find out more information about our guests at americanblackjournal.org and you can always connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

We'll see you next time.

(jazzy music) >>From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

>>Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

>>The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of American Black Journal in covering African-American history, culture, and politics.

The DTE Foundation and American Black Journal partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

>>Also brought to you by AAA, Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bittersweet music)