Word on the Street

Fugitive Safe Surrender
From Lin Crowe

I have wanted to share the excitement and blessing of a week with our colleagues. We were involved in a major initiative with the criminal justice system here in Philadelphia known as Fugitive Safe Surrender (sponsored by the United States Marshals Service) where men and women with outstanding warrants were encouraged to turn themselves in voluntarily in the sanctuary of a church, True Gospel Tabernacle (Bishop McNear is the leader).

Fugitive Safe Surrender brought in a total of 1,249 people with outstanding warrants! We worked from morning until night hosting and serving them and their families. Most came in fearful and cautious but left with smiles, like a young man and his grateful mom and even a kindly old grandmother, who had a warrant from 1986.

We had a great partnership with the courts, prosecutors, police and defense attorneys. We had tons of media coverage, national and local TV and radio stations and newspapers. All kinds of people came through, from the new mayor to one of our former inmates from a Bible study, who brought his girlfriend so that she could clear up her warrant.

On the final day, the crowds were so big we had to shuttle people through in lines. All the leadership, even the head judge of criminal court were so pleased that they want to try it again.

Lots of our partner social service providers had resource tables with access to health care, jobs, housing, etc. (and free food for everyone waiting). There was even a mobile heath unit providing free instant HIV testing for anyone.

Although it was an official criminal justice operation (we had four full courtrooms, and the pre-trial intake had 10 computer stations!), the church was respected as a full partner and we did not have to remove any spiritual signage etc., so at the end of the day we could all step back, exhausted as we were, and give glory to God. Bishop McNear coined a phrase saying, “This isn’t separation of church and state, this is cooperation of church and state.”

Perhaps the best way to sum up what happened during Fugitive Safe Surrender is to share this unsolicited letter to Bishop McNear from a senior leader in the criminal justice system here in Philadelphia. Each of us involved in this enormous effort has many stories to tell about the countless smiles and tears of joy from relieved surrenderees and their families, but this one opens a window on our effort like no other:

Dear Reverend Doctor McNear,
I consider my self, philosophically, to be a benign conservative, able to distinguish between the need for service and the need for enforcement. I have worked here for 34 years and have seen a lot. I have never been particularly enamored at the functioning of the court system. Many of the programs, projects and initiatives I have seen or been involved in have turned out to be processes with no result; symbolic with no discernible outcome, hence my cynicism.

I did not volunteer for FSS, probably because of the above, nor did I understand what it was. I did go to your church last Friday morning to see what it was about. I was moved to tears. I was aghast at what I saw. The system set up there was a highly functioning microcosm of the entire criminal justice system. I would have lost a large sum of money betting that such a thing was impossible. I worked that day until closing, interviewing and representing our department in court, things I have not done for decades. That I was not there on the other three days was my loss. This was the practice of our profession in its highest form. It was humbling to see offenders cry with joy because they could walk out of your church without the millstone tied around their neck. One man was clearly near death when arrived, afflicted with a long list of terminal ailments, dragging an oxygen tank behind him; yet he was intent on clearing his name. I was privileged to handle his case. When the judge asked for my recommendation, I said “terminate probation for medical reasons”. When the judge said “so ordered”, the offender was relieved such that one would think I had cured several of the ailments which are closing in on him.

Though I’m sure you would eschew such sentiments, this is a great thing you have done. It required no small amount of perseverance, but is its own reward. Those who proselytize about the separation of church and state should have been there too.

As you can see, the concentration of efforts in the area of prison aftercare through Kingdom Care Reentry Network (KCRN) is opening amazing doors of opportunity to serve. Three of our Philadelphia Metro Team leaders in The Navigators participated in Safe Surrender and we were all thrilled with the results. I spoke to many family members and surrenderees over the four days, and like our other partners in KCRN (the lead faith-based organization in the program) saw God answer many prayers throughout the week.