MCPCC NEWSLETTER

(Middlesex County Prison Coordinating Committee)

MCPCC met on January 9, 2002 in Bedford. Beverly Wilkins,

Elizabeth Woodbridge, Tom Crowther, Judith Lustig and Marjorie

Moerschner were present. Our guest speaker was Rev. Milton

Thomas Sr., Billerica's Protestant chaplain. Rev. Thomas gave the

opening prayer.

Rev. Thomas received an M.Div. from the BU School of

Theology, where he was a student of Dr Seth Asaré. Weekdays, he

is the recently appointed full-time Protestant chaplain at

Billerica. He is also the pastor of a church in Lowell, which he

started.

We asked him how MCPCC could help him and he said that one

area would be Christmas celebrations.

The DOC no longer allows donations of toiletries for the men

at Christmas- they might make alcohol from them. The Salvation

Army provides one pair of white socks for each inmate. Each man

gets 3 Christmas cards with postage to send to family or friends;

the cards are donated by Vision New England. The greatest need is

for donated gifts for the Angel Tree program, which distributes

gifts to the children of prisoners. There are 700 inmates at

Billerica, 300 at the Cambridge Jail and probably an average of

2 children per prisoner; this adds up to a lot of gifts.

Rev. Thomas arranged for a quartet to perform at the prison

Christmas service, and he will have a choir come in at Easter.

Each man who wants one, gets a Bible from the MA Bible

Society. Spanish Bibles are available, but there is some need

for Portuguese and Cambodian Bibles. The Bibles must be soft

cover- hard cover books can be used as weapons.

Rev. Thomas intends to start an inmate choir. His services

include congregational singing, and the choir will grow out of

that. He makes copies of the hymns to be sung and distibutes

them- again, hard cover hymn books are not allowed.

The prison has purchased a keyboard with amplifier and a

prisoner who used to play has begun to practice it. One man

plays the guitar.

About 65-70 men come to worship services, which are held on

Monday nights in the dining room, from 6:30 to 8 PM. When Rev.

Thomas first came to the prison, attendance averaged about 45

men, many of them just there for recreation time; but things are

changing and the men are more serious about why they're there.

One man recently refused to get into a fight because of his

exposure to the worship message.

Unfortunately visiting hours do conflict with the Monday

services.

Thursday afternoon he has scripture and Bible study relating

to the real issues the men face. 12 or more attend.

There is a violence intervention program in one of the

modular units, which has a mandatory meeting every Monday

afternoon, from 1 to 3, with several regular speakers. Rev.

Thomas is one of those speakers, as is Dr. Sperber, and someone

talks about parenting. Rev. Thomas talks about spiritual issues,

such as forgiveness He likes to get a discussion going, to get

the men to wrestle with these issues.

Another of the mods houses men who are involved in a very

intensive drug intervention program. Rev. Thomas goes there on

Wednesdays to work with those who have reached the 1lth and 12th

steps of the 12 step program.

It's difficult for him to meet with work release men since

they are away from the prison on weekdays. He tries to get

around to see them in the evening.

He had been going once a week to Cambridge, but has decided

to focus on Billerica. He would like for someone to be in

Cambridge, though.

He has a questionnaire on prison ministry for interested

people to fill out, but he would like to have prison ministry

done by pastors rather than lay people.

We were very pleased to meet and talk with Rev. Thomas! He

brings lots of energy, humor, empathy and good ideas to the

chaplancy, and we look forward to working with him.

Beverly reported that the prison art contest is over, and that

there are some fine entries. Linda Justice used proceeds from

the sale of greeting cards from last year's contest for the prize

money, and the sheriff contributed matching amounts.

Tom's church, the First Church of Christ, Congregational, in Bedford,

gave 9 English and 9 English-Spanish dictionaries to the prison

library.

We want to thank the following churches and individuals who gave

money to MCPCC during 2001. Your gifts are very much appreciated!

Central Church, Newtonville

Edwards Church of Framingham

Eliot Church of Newton

First Church of Christ, Bedford

First Parish in Lincoln

Presbyterian Church of Sudbury

Second Church, Newton

United Methodist Church, Newton

Wilmington Methodist Church

David Berkeley

Michael Sperber

Betty and Charles Wilson

Mike Myers, who directs the prison program of the City Mission

Society will be with us at our next meeting.

NEXT MEETING: FEBRUARY 5, 2002 at 7 PM

CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 218 WALNUT ST. NEWTONVILLE