InnerChange Freedom Initiative Participants

Inmates Beating the Odds

Prisoners Are Proving Statistics Wrong Through an Innovative Program That Helps Them Succeed on the Outside

Nationally Two-Thirds of Inmates Are Re-Arrested and about Half End up Back Behind Bars within Three Years of Release (Bureau of Justice Statistics).
 

Darryl Brooks

Darryl Brooks was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of drug possession with the intent to deliver cocaine. In January 2001, he enrolled in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative^® program at the Carol S. Vance unit near Houston. 

Brooks was released from prison in April 2002 and is now the associate pastor at Sugar Land Family Church. His job responsibilities include working with church members to reach out to those who are incarcerated. His church offers one-on-one mentoring, discipleship, family care and behind-the-walls church to current inmates, former inmates and their families.

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Ron Gruber

Ron Gruber was deeply entrenched in gang participation both in and out of the penitentiary since age 14 and eventually became the head of the gang's security nationwide. "The colors on our backs, the power, the women and the respect we demanded were my life," said Gruber. In 2000, while serving out a sentence for murder, Gruber took an introduction class to the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program and decided to apply.

"What I now have is a transformed heart. I have integrity," says Gruber. "I now live by a standard and by values that I did not have before. I see women as equals, children as priceless and all men as equal before God."

In response to his experience at the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, Gruber says, "I am leaving prison one day and I will be living next to someone. Would they rather me leave prison a different man, filled with the love of Christ, or would they rather me come out saturated with the hate I used to learn in prison?"

Gruber was transferred to the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City, Iowa, in the fall of 2006. There he is an active participant in the facility's Christian Church and witnesses daily to other prisoners. He is also working in the eyeglass lab repairing used glasses for distribution to poor countries and is receiving Hospice Training.

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Robert Sutton

Robert Sutton started running the streets of Houston as a kid, caught up in gang life and drugs. As he grew older, he robbed drug dealers and eventually started dealing drugs himself. He was in and out of prison and fathered five children by two women.

One night in 1985, Sutton accidentally shot the mother of his three younger children while playing around with what he thought was an unloaded gun. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

After much reluctance, Sutton attended a chapel revival in prison and later began to read the Bible. In 1997, the prison chaplain tapped him to apply for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative.

In 1998, after 13 years in prison, Sutton was released-jobless, penniless and still estranged from his children. He soon renewed contact with the mother of his two oldest children, which eventually led to marriage. Sutton also has begun nurturing a relationship with his three younger children. He now works as a custodian and van driver at his church, Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Houston.

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Travis Dagel

Addicted to drugs and having committed assault and robbery on his dealer, Travis Dagel was sent to prison at age 19 facing a 40-year sentence and with little hope. On the outside Dagel left a series of damaged and broken relationships with his family and his girlfriend. About his life before prison, Dagel said, "I was a very evil person, always thinking about myself. I stole, lied and did everything that I could do wrong to the people that loved me most."

But after several months in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, Dagel's attitude and behavior changed.

"I have had the chance to be mentored by people who really care about me, by men who are a good example of how to treat their family and loved ones," Dagel said. "This program has taught me how to be a better person to the people in my life and the people I come across. I now have the desire to put others first," said Dagel.

Dagel was released from prison on April 1, 2005, and now owns and manages a construction business. In April 2008, he got married.

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