Bridges To Life needs volunteers to help make a difference in the lives of both prison inmates and victims of crime. You can help! Find out more about how you can join the Bridges to Life volunteer team.
Numerous articles have been published about the unique work of Bridges to Life in both local and national publications.
Jim Buffington and Brandon Willard receive 2008 Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Awards
John Sage is recipient of HYLA Liberty Bell Award and was inducted into the St. Thomas Hall of Honor.
Bridges To Life is a 501( c )(3) Charitable Organization. Donations are tax deductible.
Bridges To Life
P.O. Box 19039
Houston, TX 77224-9039
To donate to Bridges to Life online, simply click on the Paypal button below to be directed to a secure donation page.
Bridges To Life is a Restorative Justice program that goes into prisons to implement a faith-based victim impact curriculum. This work is not fun, glamorous, or socially popular. We go into dark places and bring light to the lowest segment of our population. They are truly the outcasts of society who have been justly deemed unworthy of living in the free world for a period of time. They are locked up behind fences with razor wire, put in places that are guarded by armed sentinels, and given a clear message that they are the scum of the earth. So, why should we go to great effort and expense to help these folks?
A practical answer to that question is that 98% of incarcerated offenders will be released and will live in our communities. Our work makes your community a safer place to live. With no treatment or help, it is estimated that 67% of those released will be rearrested within three years after their release date. Many of these arrests will be for new crimes that dramatically affect our family, friends, and neighbors. Since over 600,000 people will be released from prisons in 2008, this is a huge problem for our country.
A spiritual answer to the question leads us to a better understanding of humanity, faith, hope, love, and gratitude. It also involves a large dose of mercy, forgiveness, and repentance. For a Christian, these topics are at the center of the Gospel of Jesus, which is the foundation of our faith. Other faiths also embrace these concepts. Incarcerated offenders were not born with a different DNA that makes them bad. Most of them were raised in a horrible environment that leads to crime, although that never excuses their crimes. The most common remark by our new volunteers is “but for the grace of God, there go I”. Change is possible if an offender is introduced to the concepts of accountability, responsibility, confession, empathy, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restitution. Our program offers those concepts, among other things, to incarcerated offenders before they are released to live in our society. Our recidivism statistics and research validate that our process has a significant impact.
One of the reasons our program has been so successful is that we have paid staff to coordinate each of our projects. Since we are currently working in 24 prisons, we have six regional coordinators living in different parts of Texas. We plan to complete 50 projects in the prisons in 2008, and each project consists of 14 weekly meetings. These projects will involve a total of 1,600 inmates and several hundred volunteers. The staff members must travel to these meetings to coordinate and manage volunteers, insure the consistency of the curriculum, and work with the prison staff to implement the weekly meetings. Management is critical, particularly since prison is a difficult environment and there are many variables that can prevent the program from succeeding. I am pleased to report that our program is growing and succeeding. In order to continue this growth and success, we need financial support.
Restoring Peace – Using Lessons From Prison to Mend Broken Relationships details the principles used in the Bridges To Life program, combined with actual stories from victim and inmate participants. The book is intended for repairing or improving relationships with others.
“The best part about this program is the small group setting which allows both victim and inmate to be open and honest with one another and the trust, confidence that is built through these groups.”