Penance and penitentiary

For years, Ronda Jenkins neglected her family as her heroin and meth addictions consumed her.

The suburban mother lost her husband, her home, the love of her children, and, finally, her freedom when she was incarcerated for drug possession and theft.

"I ruined a very good thing," said Jenkins, 47, who was released from High Plains Correctional Facility in Brush, Colo., in September 2007 after serving 27 months. "I was on the road to destruction."

Her turning point, she said, came when she became a born-again Christian through Daughters of Destiny, a women's prison ministry. Jenkins signed up for its prison Bible studies and seminars. Upon her release, the ministry assigned Jenkins a mentor and helped her find local housing.

These days, Jenkins is drug-free and working as a dog handler at Lucky Dog Resort & Training School.
"Daughters of Destiny is a full-circle ministry," Jenkins said. "They started with me in prison, and I'm still connected with them one year later."

Creating Destiny
Daughters of Destiny is the brainchild of Mel Goebel, a 57-year-old who understands the challenges of starting over in the shadow of prison time. In 1973, Goebel began a three-year sentence in the Nebraska State Penitentiary for theft, burglary and drug possession.

"I had the typical prisoner profile," Goebel said. "I came from an abusive family and got involved as a teenager with drugs and alcohol."

A conversion experience in prison changed his life, and in the 1980s - a few years after his release from prison - Goebel started working for Prison Fellowship International, led by Charles Colson, a former politician who spent seven months in jail for his role in the Nixon era Watergate scandal.

But Goebel concluded that Colson's and other prison ministries had two deficiencies. They lacked a consistent system for distributing faith-based books to inmates, and they didn't provide programs geared toward female prisoners.

Through his umbrella organization Impact for Life, which he founded in 2000, Goebel would address both issues.

He had started Impact for Life to evangelize in prisons through crusades that feature sermons, testimonies and music. The same year, he launched Library for Hope, which supplies Christian books to prisons. Fifty-five Christian book publishers, such as Focus on the Family, Integrity Music and the International Bible Society, contribute to the library, which has shipped 55,000 books so far this year.

Then, in 2007, he started Daughters of Destiny to help female prisoners transition to life after incarceration.

Impact for Life - which includes not only Daughters of Destiny and Library for Hope, but also a ministry to aid children of jailed women called Kid's Crossing - is supported solely by donations. The nonprofit received $306,000 in donations in 2007, according to financial records, and $225,715 this year through Sept. 17. Eighty-five percent of the money goes to the ministry's programs.

Daughters of Destiny programs are in dozens of prisons in 15 states, reaching 15,000 female inmates, Goebel said. The ministry has five employees and 1,039 volunteers, many of whom are former inmates.

Statistics show that three-quarters of former prisoners end up back in prison within three years of release, said Annie Island, Daughters of Destiny director of ministry programs. The ministry is striving to break this pattern, although its effectiveness can't be measured for a few more years because it's so new, she said.

Daughters of Destiny assigns a mentor to each woman, finds a church for them to attend and connects them with faith-based social groups.

"The women need to change their belief systems to help them avoid the things that got them into prison in the first place," said Island, a former convict. "That's what we try to achieve by remaining part of their lives after their release."

New lives
For many years, Tiffany Harrington's addiction to meth turned her life upside down. A college graduate, Harrington lost her job as a high school teacher. Her husband divorced her, and her relationship with her children deteriorated.

"You still love your children, but the drug becomes the most important thing in your life," Harrington said. "By the time I woke up, I was in prison. I burned every bridge. I was totally alone."

In December 2005, Harrington was imprisoned in a New Mexico penitentiary for drug possession, serving 24 months. There she connected with Daughters of Destiny, which found her housing through a ministry partner after her release.

Harrington now works for Colorado Springs-based Bibles for the World, an international evangelical group, and is a Daughters of Destiny volunteer. Her relationship with her two children, ages 7 and 9, has improved, she said, and she recently was granted visitation rights.

Harrington said her addiction took away everything she had, but she turned a corner when she became a Christian.

"I have a direction and a purpose now," she said.

Jenkins, meanwhile, is developing a closer relationship with her three children - Aaron Jenkins, 20, Brittany Behar, 23, and Cherie Behar, 26.

Aaron and Brittany said Jenkins rarely was around when they were growing up, but since her prison release the relationship has improved.

"She's trying to be a mom now," Aaron said. "Before, that wasn't the case."

Brittany, a single mom of two children, notices a big change in Jenkins.

"She used to be very angry and violent and never happy," Brittany said. "Now she goes to church all the time and seems a lot happier."

Daughters of Destiny operates in 15 states including California, Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Arizona. For more information or to volunteer visit: www.impactlife.org and click on the Daughters for Destiny label, or call (719) 632-3880

Daughters of Destiny, which operates in dozens of prisons in 15 states, helps female inmates become Christians and lead fruitful lives after release from prison.