US prison ministry has distributed over 1 million Bibles since 2019, “the demand right now is unlike anything we have ever seen”
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Responding to a dramatic increase in demand, the US Prison Fellowship ministry has now delivered more than 1 million Bibles to inmates in American prisons since 2019, The Roys Report (TRR) has reported. The US has both the highest number of prisoners in the world (2,068,800 – around 25% of the world’s prison population), and the highest rate of incarceration in the world (625 prisoners per 100,000 people) according to a World Population Review report for 2023.
Founded in 1976, the Virginia-based Prison Fellowship ministry has partnered with Tyndale House Publishers since 2018, TRR reports. The ministry distributes Bibles, Christian books and its quarterly Inside Journal newspaper to 900 jails across all 50 US states.
Prison Fellowship has also set up an online store for prison chaplains called The Storehouse, making access to Christian literature much easier for those in jail: prison chaplains who register on the site can order Bibles, books, DVDs and other resources for free, TRR said.
Telling TRR about the current high demand for Bibles in US jails, Prison Fellowship spokesman Jim Forbes said: “Prior to 2019, Prison Fellowship distributed an average of 5,000-6,000 Bibles annually. Since then, we have sent an average of more than 250,000 Bibles each year. This dramatic increase in requests for Bibles continues today.”
In a separate statement in May, Prison Fellowship CEO James Ackerman noted: “The demand right now is unlike anything we have ever seen. There is nothing short of a revival happening behind prison walls.”
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