Dr. Peter P. Legins, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology, is considered by most people to be the dean of American criminologists. In a meeting with a group of men who were the founders of Kairos, he said: "I have known for many years, as have most of the leading criminologists in this country, that the greatest hope for an inmate to avoid the revolving doors of our prisons is to undergo a religious conversion experience during his incarceration."

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF KAIROS?

The purpose of Kairos is the building of strong Christian communities within the environment of correctional institutions. That is done through the impact of small, share and prayer groups of residents in the institutions. These groups meet weekly to share their lives on a very deep spiritual level and to pray for one and other and for the residents and the staff.

Kairos is a continuing prison ministry launched with the presentation of a 3-day short course in Christianity in a correctional institution.

The primary continuing ministry of Kairos is from resident to resident and occurs in small share and prayer groups which meet weekly.

Even though prison sentences in the United States are long in comparison with other countries, most inmates will return to society in less than three years. Ninety-six percent of them will eventually be walking the same streets which we walk.

For a variety of reasons, from 30 to 70 percent of those released will return to prison again. Continuing studies being carried out in South Carolina, Texas, Colorado and California indicate dramatic reductions in the recidivism rate among those residents who have experienced Kairos.

"I appreciate from the bottom of my heart what God has led you and the other brothers and sisters in Christ to do for me and my brothers here. This is not an easy place to learn to love, but do you know what? Praise God! It's changing. This garbage dump of the prison system is changing daily. "The stone the builders refused has now become the chief cornerstone."(Luke 20:17)"

"This place where violence and hostility has been a part of our everyday life here for many years, is now becoming a flower garden of many human miracles."

" I know you tell us not to thank you and the others for what you do through Kairos for us. But I've been here for over 15 years as an inmate, through the fights and deaths and stabbings and homosexual rapes and all the blood drippings on the concrete and steel throughout these many years. And I can truly say that Kairos here is making a real change in the lives of many inmates here. I am a living testimony to that miraculous kind of change. And I see this same kind of change daily in my brothers here. You and the others have been a significant part of bringing about an awakening of the Christ-likeness a bunch of roughneck convicts."

The Rt. Rev. Furman C. Stough, then Episcopal Bishop of Alabama, wrote in his diocesan magazine after serving on the team for that state's first Kairos weekend:

"I have never seen the Gospel impact a group of people with such power and so quickly in such a short period of time. I do not think that I have ever laughed as much or cried as much or prayed as much as I did during those four days."

"What we saw in these 42 inmates, and in ourselves as well, was the real person that God made, slowly beginning to emerge from behind all kinds of barriers erected over the years. Real human beings, your brothers and mine, beginning to once again trust God and to trust themselves to love once again."

The late, Most Rev. Joseph G. Vath, Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham, wrote in his diocesan magazine after having worked in a maximum security institution in Alabama as a team member on West Jefferson Kairos #1:

"I guess the very impressive sight of Roman Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, and members of other denominations forming a team to give Christian witness to prisoners in the environment of their own prison is bound to move even those of little faith... what a transformed world this could be if everyone could share the love of Christ, the love of his fellow man, the willingness to serve community and the deep abiding sense of prayer in unity that this weekend brought."

"Kairos is the most effective program for prisoners ever held in this institution".

"Kairos is the most consistent and effective ministry I have experienced in the Texas Criminal Justice System. The format of Kairos aids in a practical presentation of the gospel message which reaches residents where they are. It impacts every facet of their lives: emotional, physical, social, spiritual."

"Kairos is one of the most powerful prison ministries I have ever seen. I'm not saying that Kairos will change your facility completely. It will not turn it around in a week or even a year... but I do believe that the individual men are changed and so are their lives. Kairos will have a profound effect in untold numbers."

"Kairos has more impact on those exposed to it that any program I've experienced in a prison setting. Some of these prisoners who have been historically very difficult to manage are now a positive influence on others in the prison through their involvement in Kairos."

"The Kairos experience is a benefit to all involved, including prison staff, community volunteers, and prisoners."

"The impact on those who went in that weekend, those from the free world, was something I have never observed in my nearly half century of prison work."

"Those Christians who went in there were not shouting fire and brimstone, they were forgiving."

"They were not sitting at the head of the table but at the foot of the table."

"They were not not being served but were serving."

"They were not rejecting, they were accepting. Remarkable."

"They were not hating, they were loving. They were friends."