Jason was locked up in the early 90s to serve a life sentence. Gang life there was so bloody, his unit was nicknamed the Terror Dome, and the only way to survive was to stick to your race. Initiation was kill or be killed, and Jason quickly climbed the hierarchy of the Aryan Brotherhood, a notorious white supremacist gang.  

As the warfare between gangs grew bloodier, Jason’s role as a leader landed him 10 years in segregation, a 23-hour-a-day lockdown with no human contact. At the time, he was barely literate. A Muslim and a Christian occupied the cells on either side of him, often arguing about their religious views. God used the situation to spark a desire inside Jason. He began requesting books on philosophy and theology and, in time, he surrendered his life to Jesus.  Jason renounced the Aryan Brotherhood, stopped using smuggled heroin, and signed up for an intensive grad program to study world religions as his literacy improved. He became a field minister (chaplain’s assistant), assigned to the hospice unit. As Jason sat holding the hands of two prisoners who were taking their final breaths, he didn’t know what to say to them, other than “I love you.” Words he’d never said to anyone before.

Eventually, Jason enrolled in World Impact’s Church-Based Seminary classes. He wanted to understand Christianity that not only addressed life in prison, but death in prison.  

Jason and a fellow field minister named Jackie, a Black man formerly known as “The Fighter,” now lead classes in the Terror Dome. Their group — composed of Black, Jewish, White, and Latino men — join in prayer, united in a brotherhood that transcends racially divided gangs. God is working through the incarcerated church to bring hope and renewal to our society!