Page 4 - Good News June 2014 paper

lpha, an introductory segregation. For months at a time,
Course to the Christian
Afaith is quietly spreading
throughout Britain's prisons. Its
techniques are so powerful that it
is transforming the most brutal
inmates.
An inmate changed through moved from maximum security
Alpha is Shane Taylor, convicted
for two attempted murders and
provoking prison riots. He was
treated as a Category A prisoner.
He spent most of his days in
naked so he was less easy to
his food would be delivered restrain, and wait to do battle with
through a secure hatch in his
door, and he would be escorted to
the showers by officers in full riot
gear. He was put on the "ghost
train", as inmates call it, getting
jail to maximum security jail.
Whenever he was put back in a
wing, he would inevitably start
trouble. His standard tactic was to
retreat to his cell after a fight, strip
"People would mock me and I
wouldn't care." Unwavering, he
the officers. The Home Office helped out on two further Alpha
came to know him as one of the Courses. The officers began to
six most dangerous prisoners in accept they had been proven
the country. wrong.
He did his Alpha Course in 2005, That's not to say there weren't
while at HMP Long Lartin, and it relapses. "I had an incident with
actually happened by mistake. an inmate where he pulled a knife
One day an officer opened his on me and I just flipped and tried
door and said he had to go to an to grab him into my cell," he
educational class. When he recalls. "After that incident, I shut
arrived he was told he wasn't on the door and fell to my knees and
the list, and directed to the chapel. started crying. I thought, 'I'm still
It was midway through the Alpha the same person.'" The chaplain
Course. He sat at the back for a reassured him that simply being
moment and was considering penitent meant he had changed.
leaving when a fellow inmate told Things take time.
him to stay for the free coffee and This year Taylor is about to start
biscuits. Tempted, Taylor signed working for CFEO, promoting the
up immediately. charity in the Northeast. He's
The message of forgiveness repentant for his crimes, which, if
attracted him. "I had always pressed, he puts down to a
thought there were good and bad combination of mental illness
people," he says. "I thought I was and a chaotic childhood.
so bad that I was going straight to "There's no excuse for what I've
hell no matter what I did." A few done, though. I wish I had never
weeks later, when the Course had done it." He has been out for
reached its Holy Spirit session, seven years without reoffending.
the chaplain prayed for him in It's impossible to imagine where
tongues. "I remember feeling daft, he would have been now, if he
but he asked me to pray as well. hadn't ended up in the chapel that
And I just said, 'God, if You are day. "I'll tell you what was on my
real, come into my life, because I mind before I became a Christian,
hate the way I am.' Then the what I was planning to do when I
chaplain and I started talking and I would be released. There were
started feeling an energy in my two prison officers that I was
stomach. This feeling rose up and going to find. I was going to tie
I stopped talking. I started to feel these officers, brutalise them a
my eyes bubble up, and I just bit, and kill their families in front
sobbed and sobbed. I knew God of them. I was going to say to
was real then." them, 'Look what you've done.'
As ferociously as he had thrown And then kill them, too." But
himself into violent crime, he thankfully, he encountered Jesus
became a zealous Christian. The just in time!
officers were, obviously, incredu- [Charlie Burton, Joel News Inter-
lous. He lost friends, too. national 907 / 03/06/2014].