After cycling in and out of jail for half of his life, Ernesto had finally stopped the cycle—on the wrong side of the bars. “I received my life sentence at the age of twenty-five,” he says. “However, it did not stop me from my gang and criminal mentality.” This...
To some, high school is a place to learn new things and explore new hobbies. To others, it is a place to make friends and socialize. To Jason, it was a place to sell drugs. “By sixteen, I was an accomplished drug dealer, using school for my client base,” he says. “I...
By Aly Gagnon Al Bonilla never thought he would follow his father’s footsteps into ministry. As a pastor’s kid, Al witnessed all the difficulties his father experienced while pouring everything he had into his ministry and raising a family. “I was not interested in...
Growing up in a Catholic family in the Philippines, Aprubertito served as an altar boy at his family’s church. But he abandoned the church after suffering abuse from one of the priests. “I was traumatized,” he remembers. “My relatives didn’t understand why I stopped...
Crossroads mentor Richard knows how much a letter can mean to someone in prison. Because he’s been there. He’s been on the receiving end of simple acts of kindness from strangers, and now he’s giving back. As a Crossroads mentor, now he is the one writing letters that...
Another day, another transfer. In his twenty-fifth year of incarceration, Dwayne was used to being moved from prison to prison, but that didn’t make it any easier. “I was in my lowest point in my twenty-five years in prison—no mail, no one who cared if I lived or...
