About Us

Retired RJDCF Protestant Chaplain CM "Buzz" Brewer has said, "In forty years working in corrections, I have never seen a program that changes lives like Kairos!"

In 1975, Tom Johnson, an attorney and Catholic Cursillista from Miami, Florida, attended an ecumenical Cursillo gathering in Atlanta, Georgia. Though delegates came from several denominations presenting Cursillo weekends, this Atlanta gathering was heavily Lutheran.

Tom Johnson had been imagining a Cursillo program in prison for some months. During the Atlanta meeting Tom learned some of the delegates were planning a prison weekend in Iowa. Tom approached the Iowa delegate, Pastor Gene Hermeier and asked permission to attend. One week later, Tom was observing a Cursillo weekend in an Iowa prison. Excited by the experience, he returned to Miami determined to begin Cursillo weekends in Florida prisons. That first weekend was held at Union Correctional Institution at Raiford, Florida in the fall of 1976.

By 1978, six or seven states were presenting a Cursillo short course in prison. The national Cursillo office in Dallas surveyed these prison Cursillos and determined they should be ecumenical, and supervised by a central authority. They felt the format should be modified to better meet inmate needs. Cursillo asked the Florida group to design such a program. The first Kairos was presented in 1979. Following that first “Kairos” weekend, Cursillo asked other areas who were doing Cursillo weekends in prison to stop using the Cursillo name and join Kairos.

Kairos dates its history back to that first weekend at Union C I in Raiford, FL in September of 1976. Kairos is now active in 33 states and in the countries of Australia, Canada, England, Costa Rica and South Africa. The ministry is active in over 300 ministry sites and 35 Kairos Outside ministries for women whose sons and husbands are in prison. Kairos has requests for its program in Honduras, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, and several other countries.

Kairos does this with a paid staff of eight people and over 20,000 volunteers who pay for the 618 weekends we present each year. Recidivism studies in Florida and South Carolina found that Kairos experience brought a drop in recidivism of about one-third when compared to a control group.

By bringing the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ into prison, Kairos is widely recognized as a highly effective program to positively change inmate attitudes.

The Kairos activities for the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJDCF) located southeast of San Diego is administered by the San Diego Kairos Advisory Council. Although part of the larger Golden State Kairos of California, the San Diego organization is responsible for its own schedule of programs at RJDCF and for its own fundraising.

Kairos of San Diego does the following:

Conducts two Kairos weekends, twice yearly, on two separate facilities within RJDCF
Holds monthly Kairos reunions in both yards to instill community and encourage small groupings
Plans twice yearly two-day retreats to reinforce Kairos weekend message
Joint Sponsors special holiday events or activities
Conducts special in-prison food sales to raise money for the Kairos community and prison chapel programs

Click here to see what current Kairos activities are scheduled at RJDCF and how you can help.

Prisons Worldwide

One of every 147 Americans is in prison (Department of Justice Statistics, April 2000). The United States provides 5% of the world's population, while having 25% of the world's incarcerated population.

Prisons in the USA

The United States currently has more than two million incarcerated or under correctional supervision. Incarceration has become a $50 billion dollar a year industry.

Where KAIROS fits in

Studies have shown that between 66% and 80% of parolees will re-offend within 3 years; if these parolees have attended one or more faith-based programs in prison the recidivism rate drops to 14-20%.