Ladies Jail Ministry brings counseling to inmates

By Kate Miller, Record Managing Editor
Posted 2/3/19

In this mission, success is measured one person at a time.Kathy Barrett leads the Ladies Jail Ministry, a group of volunteer women who use their faith in God to counsel women in the Warren County …

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Ladies Jail Ministry brings counseling to inmates

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In this mission, success is measured one person at a time.Kathy Barrett leads the Ladies Jail Ministry, a group of volunteer women who use their faith in God to counsel women in the Warren County Jail. They bring help to inmates who are interested in faith-based, comprehensive programs.Barrett has been leading the faith-based program for 22 years. Her path to the ministry may be rooted in childhood abuse. After years of struggle and tragedy, she found faith.As a born-again Christian she found as source for healing and was invited to start the first missionary for the Ladies Jail Ministry when it was established in Warren County by the Smith Creek United Methodist Church in 1997.Volunteers come from five churches in two counties. Barrett requires volunteers to have a faith-based approach to life.Faith isn’t just part of the mission, it is the mission itself, she said.“We require a commitment to God and the church. We do not teach church doctrine. We teach the word of God (through the Bible),” said Barrett.Visits to the jail are weekly.“It’s a church session, but it’s not a stand-up, lectern-style sermon,” said 13-year volunteer Brenda Welker.The group created two rules less practiced in the church — always interrupt and no private conversations. They know female inmates come from every socioeconomic background. Their crimes, while being held in a county jail, more often involve a history of abuse or assault or drug and alcohol addiction.Barrett and Welker said they have encountered mothers and then, years later, their daughters in jail for similar crimes and addictions. They also have encountered parents, desperate to rescue their troubled children, go into debt trying to help them.Several times a year, women Barrett has met at the jail die unnecessarily to addiction.“I don’t have an answer on how to fight drugs,” she said. “Drugs are so prevalent. The whole community is going to have to get behind (a solution).”Drug addicts who go to jail lose access to their supply, she said, and they get sober because they have no choice. But what happens when they get out?“Some tell me they are scared to get out, because the same temptations are still there. The same friends are calling,” said Welker, adding that some of the women in jail, due to bad choices, have no one to turn to when they get out.Still, “We have seen success,” she said. “Some have become productive citizens.”The ministry will work with women who want help.“With the funds that we have, we have helped people go to rehab. We have had people come out and cling to us for support,” Barrett said. “I have taken them shopping (with their children). While Mama has been in jail, they lost everything they had. If we have the funds, we use it.”The women know their work is challenging. Their help isn’t always welcomed. The faith isn’t always genuine. But for every “one” they help, it makes a world of difference.

The Ladies Jail Ministry, lead by Kathy Barrett (forefront), meets with women inmates weekly at the Warren County Jail. Their mission is to inspire women to look to faith to make better choices and find a healthier path. 

Record photo/Kate Miller

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