From Power to Redemption: Chuck Colson and the Legacy of Second Chances

“What man meant for evil, God meant for good.” (Genesis 50:20) 

Amid the 1972 Watergate scandal, God worked through the life of convicted felon Chuck Colson to bring about renewal, transformation, and hope in the lives of incarcerated individuals. 

In a recent Friday Forum, Scott Peyton, Prison Fellowship Senior Director of Advocacy, and Ed Simcox, co-founder of Prison Fellowship, and author of the personal memoir In the Room, shared reflections on the legacy of Chuck Colson and the start of Prison Fellowship. 

The former Special Counsel to President Nixon served seven months in a federal prison for obstruction of justice. After Watergate, “Chuck encountered Christ in a profound way,” said Peyton. “But his faith did not pull him away from public life. It did just the opposite. It pushed him toward those who are too often forgotten.”

In 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship “because he believed the gospel applied inside prison walls as much as it applied anywhere else.”

Now in its 50th year, Prison Fellowship continues Colson’s pioneering work by supporting public policy that reflects both justice and mercy, and by advocating for second chances of formerly incarcerated individuals. 

Why do the formerly incarcerated deserve a second chance? “Because we all have a second chance on the cross,” said Simcox.

A commitment to second chances has strong policy implications. Criminal justice reform that centers on restorative justice encompasses a preventative culture to crime, in-person ministry to incarcerated individuals, and support for successful reentry into society. The work of Prison Fellowship is thus both ministerial to those facing incarceration, and policy-oriented in the promotion of justice and mercy in law. 

“Second chances are not the absence of consequences,” said Peyton. “They are what accountability is meant to produce: transformation, responsibility and, most importantly, the opportunity for someone to live their life differently…Public safety is strengthened when redemption is possible.”

Thank you Prison Fellowship for seeking restorative justice while caring for the lives and souls of incarcerated individuals. Your focus on second chances reminds us of the salvific and transformative power of Jesus. Let us not forget the incarcerated, but remember the second chance offered to us all on the cross.