REVIEW

This difficult-to-find book deserves reprint. "Keeping Ex-Offenders Free!: An Aftercare Guide" by Donald Smarto handles a hard, but important issue within the field prison and jail ministry. Be ready when the inmate becomes an ex-offender to best help him or her succeed in life, and in faith.

It is one those few religious books that both liberal and conservative Christians can agree on.

Who should read this book? Christians who are either involved directly in inmate ministry, pastors and lay people whose church may have ex-offenders and will be involved in the ex-offender's life, and families or friends of the ex-offender. That covers a lot of people, and such is the nature of the life of a Christian.

When an inmate is released from incarceration, and becomes, at that point, an ex-offender, he or she faces a myriad of challenges.

Major topics include ideas for:

• helping ex-offenders become self-sufficient
• providing structure and stability
• modeling unconditional love through affirmation and forgiveness
• discouraging destructive habits and how to form new ones
• offering a caring worship environment

Provided are appendices for locating prison ministries, churches ministering in jails and prisons, correspondence courses, and a very important "Practical and Professional Guidelines for Jail and Prison Ministry Volunteers."

Additionally, read sections on finding a church, dealing with the old personality although he is a new person (after salvation), managing the inordinate amount attention an ex-offender may seek, the risks involved in loving an ex-offender, and a church's role in helping an ex-offender's success on the outside.

Smarto backs things up with the results of research, statistics, and examples within his own work.

Key to this book's usefulness is the frank discussion. Smarto wants that the reader to be wise in their approach in helping the ex-offender. No sugarcoating, and no sensationalizing. Like in any ministry or missions effort, this is work. Smarto provides tools for getting it done.

Smarto, both an intellectual and practitioner in inmate ministry, has headed up Wheaton College's acclaimed Institute for Prison Ministry and led several prison ministries. He's worked with drug and alcohol abuse, gangs, and spoken worldwide on inmate evangelism. His credibility is multilateral, and his guidance in "Keeping Ex-Offenders Free!: An Aftercare Guide" is valuable. I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl