A recent video of the ministry God Behind Bars shows the joy of imprisoned parents who are given the chance to spend a day with their kids, some of whom hadn’t seen each other in up to 10 years.  

Today, there are more than 800,000 parents in federal state prisons. Of those, 92% are fathers. While inmates who participate in substance-abuse treatment or employment and education programs are less likely to return to prison, programs that teach inmates parenting skills and help inmates maintain family ties during imprisonment “lead to more frequent contact between fathers and children” and help inmates “fare better when released.”  

And yet, only 11% of fathers receive this kind of assistance. As Anthony Bradley tweeted, “Outside of spiritual formation, reuniting children with their parents, [especially] fathers, must be a [number one] prison ministry priority.”