Swanson Christian Products is moving into its second year of partnership with the Rutherford County (Tenn.) Correctional Work Center as the gift company builds on the successes and salvation stories that already have been born out of the ministry.

Spearheaded by the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, the collaborative program seeks to help rehabilitate low-security prisoners by teaching them a marketable skill or trade they can use for gainful employment once their sentence has been completed.

Prisoners in Tennessee are charged a fee for each day they are incarcerated in an effort to help defray the taxpayers’ burden. When the prisoner is released, he could find himself thousands of dollars in debt to the state, but Swanson is helping to reduce that risk with a multi-pronged approach that seeks to serve the whole person.

The pilot program’s main focus is finding and facilitating work opportunities for approved inmates. Swanson’s warehouse provides one such opportunity, where inmates can learn to drive a forklift, process inventory and other useful skills.

This program also can be a direct line to employment opportunities once the inmate serves out his sentence, as several former inmates who worked at Swanson through the partnership were hired for regular employment after their release.

“If they’ve been really been an excellent worker and we have the availability, why not hire them?” said John McKinney Sr., vice president of Swanson Christian Products.

Swanson has also used this opportunity to change these men’s lives in ways beyond simply teaching them a marketable skill set.

“It gives us an opportunity to minister to these folks,” said McKinney, who shared that several prisoners working at Swanson have accepted Christ. Swanson offers daily group prayer sessions and weekly Bible studies, and despite attendance being voluntary, all of the prisoners regularly participate.

This is supplemented by a full complement of educational courses, recovery programs and counseling at the work facility, many of which are offered by churches and other faith-based organizations.

“Rehabilitating a prisoner is not just warehousing a prisoner for a period of time, but it’s actually changing their life,” said McKinney. “And there’s no better way to change their life than through introducing them to Jesus Christ.”

• Prev
• Next