“I have been working in social services and with the homeless for 30 years. I started at Mobile Mental Health and was once director of social services at the Salvation Army. My heart is to help people get unstuck. Injustice and seeing people treated unfairly is like an irritant to me. This is my way of being hands-on and doing something about it. A lot of people don’t know we have The Chaplaincy Office in Metro Jail. Some of the men and women in here haven’t been found guilty yet and are waiting to go before the judge, but they have already been judged. Some of them don’t have money to make bond, even if it is $50, so they stay in jail.
We help people in jail get their GED and have 208 graduates. We also have literacy programs and provide books and magazine for our library. We have Celebrate Recovery and Fatherhood Initiative programs. We teach life skills classes and provide help with anger management, depression, and alcoholism. Much of our ministry is funded by donations and we are underfunded and always on the edge. We need to do more programs to help, but we don’t have the funding. We would love to have more support from churches in the area. Changing lives in prison affects all of our community.
For Christmas each year we supply the inmates with a hygiene kit with a large shampoo, deodorant, and lotion. We also try to provide each one with socks, t-shirts, bras, and undergarments. We have close to 1400 inmates, 300 more than last year. We also have approximately 300 women. It is hard to have enough for so many and sometimes we run out. We have inmates here who are not supported by their families and have no one to put money on their books. They depend on the chapel to meet their everyday needs because they can’t get anything from the outside. Everyone is going to get a little something for Christmas.”
How you can help Mobile County Metro Jail Chaplain Ministries: Make a financial donation or give your time. Donate books and magazines for the library. Donate white t-shirts, socks, bras, boxer shorts or women’s panties or large sizes of soap bars, shampoo (VO5 in a clear bottle), lotion in a clear bottle, toothpaste (Aim or Pepsodent). These will be given out to as Christmas presents to the 1400 men and women in Metro Jail.
Chaplain Ministries also has collection boxes to place in businesses or churches to collect hygiene items year-round.
For more information, email [email protected] or call 251-574-5469.
I met Ms Jackson two months ago. Her energy to this ministry comes from her love of God, love of human beings and a passion for making a difference. Those the chaplaincy services support and help, both the indigent on a regular basis and now for all incarcerated persons at Christmas time, inspires me to write this note. I was honored to do the small things that I have been able to help both she and Pastor Alan, Rev. Fail the past few weeks. And, there are times, I don’t feel I have done enough. So that is my story. Will you consider helping them able to give a gift for each of the 1,500 residents of our Metro Jail (1,300 men and 200 women). Thanks in advance for thinking of them. What if it were you or a family member there?