Greetings!
Last month, I attended the graduation ceremony for the first group of Death Row inmates to complete the Bridges To Life program. The Death Row facility at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, houses men who have been found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to receive the death penalty. The nature of their criminal offenses along with the fortress in which they are housed creates a dark and eerie atmosphere for an outsider.
The highlight of any BTL graduation is the open mic portion when the inmate participants are encouraged to share their experience of the program and how they’ve changed. I have attended hundreds of BTL graduations over the years and heard thousands of graduate testimonies, but this open mic was different. We were not gathered together in a large room as graduations are usually held, rather, each man spoke from his solitary cell into a microphone held to an opening covered by thick wire mesh.
The prevailing message of these BTL graduates was their admission that they had been deceitful about their lives and crimes, and each expressed the life-changing freedom of coming clean. When all the men had finished speaking, I helped serve them pieces of graduation cake, passed on paper plates through a steel slot in their cell doors. As each plate was received, I saw smiling faces that radiated peace despite the gravity of their circumstances.
At Easter, we celebrate the miracle of resurrection. What I witnessed on Death Row was an Easter Sunday experience for me, as I saw souls emerging from darkness into light. It was an up close and personal look at the meaning of redemption and new life, and I was significantly blessed.
In His grace,
John Sage, Founder & CEO
Jim Buffington, COO
