The following are some ideas for work you might be able to do for a prison ministry that does not involve actually going inside a facility:
- In most prison environments, both male and female, there will be several programs that are ongoing. And many of these require homework, like writing papers and book reports for the materials they are covering. If you have a good command of English or Spanish grammar or editing, they might use your help grading papers.
- Another thing you might do along these lines is administrative work. If you have some experience with word processing and spreadsheets, the Chaplain or other volunteer class facilitators could use help with tracking course participation. Some large organizations that sponsor courses, like Prison Fellowship, require their facilitators to actively track all of their course conduction pretty exhaustively. You could help relieve them of some of this work.
- Here's another idea that requires a lot of research/due-diligence work. It's surprising how many States do not develop and maintain a good quality database of available re-entry houses across their States. In some States, part of the parole requirements for inmate release is that they get accepted into a re-entry or Half-way house for a period of time. Chasing down these places for some Chaplains is very time consuming. Most of this information is available online, but a compilation of this data, including applications and residency requirements could really be helpful if it were built so that Chaplains could readily access and copy out everything the inmate needs to do to gain acceptance. Obviously, this could take some time and work. And then of course, it would have to be maintained because it would be important that the information was fresh and accurate. Your Chaplain will readily tell you whether or not this is something he/she needs.
- Inmate transportation – Sometimes inmates are released from prison that have no family or contacts on the outside to help them get to a bus or train station to go home. If you work through the Chaplain, he will ask you to help only Christian inmates that he would be sure that they would not be a threat to you in any way. In fact, we have found this to be a good way to witness to or counsel a person that has just gained their freedom. Your voice in that car ride to the train station could be just the thing that helps them see the value of staying away from the people or lifestyle they were living in that helped cause their incarceration in the first place.
These are just a few of many ideas for you to consider doing in a prison ministry that wouldn't require going inside. Again, your Prison Chaplain is your best resource for information about this important work.