opioid use disorder

June 26 2019

The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant: Guest Charlie Grady, Outreach Specialist for the FBI CT Community Outreach Program, Fri., Oct. 4, 2019, 9 am ET

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On Friday, Oct. 4, 2019, 9 am ET, Charlie Grady, Outreach Specialist for the FBI CT Community Outreach Program, was be our guest on Criminal Justice Insider with Babz Rawls Ivy & Jeff Grant – The Voice of CT Criminal Justice. Live on WNHH 103.5 FM New Haven, rebroadcast at 5 pm. Live-streamed and podcast everywhere, see below. Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

Listen on SoundCloud:

Watch on YouTube:

____________________

The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast with Babz Rawls Ivy and Jeff Grant is broadcast live at 9 am ET on the first and third Friday of each month Sept. through June, from the WNHH 103.5 FM studios in New Haven. It is rebroadcast on WNHH at 5 pm ET the same day. Podcast and Archive available all the time, everywhere.

Our Facebook Page (best place for information, news, articles, events):
https://www.facebook.com/criminaljusticeinsider

Our website: prisonist.org/criminal-justice-insider
Our Twitter handle: @insidercj
Our Instagram handle: @criminaljusticeinsider

The show is live-streamed & podcast everywhere at:

New Haven Independent: newhavenindependent.org
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/wnhhradio
YouTube: https://youtube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wnhhlp
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wnhhradio
Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv/search?q=wnhh

The show is also archived at:

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/new-haven-independent/sets/criminal-justice-insider
Community Foundation of Greater New Haven website: https://www.cfgnh.org/LeadingOnIssues/IncarcerationandReentry/CriminalJusticeInsiderRadioArchives.aspx

An article about each show is published a few days later in the New Haven Independent (newhavenindependent.org).

Please “like” us on Facebook!
Contact us: [email protected]

Season Three Guests:

Fri., Sept. 6, 2019: Khalil Cumberbatch, Chief Strategist at New Yorkers United for Justice
Fri., Sept. 20, 2019: Aaron T. Kinzel, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
Fri., Oct. 4, 2019: Charlie Grady, Outreach Specialist for the FBI CT Community Outreach Program
Fri., Oct. 18, 2019: Michael Kimelman, Former Hedge Funder and Author of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider: A Cautionary Tale of Rats, Feds, and Banksters
Fri., Nov. 1, 2019: Corey Brinson, Former Attorney Convicted for a White Collar Crime who is running for Hartford City Council

Fri., Nov. 15, 2019: Cathryn Lavery, Ph.D., Asst. Chair & Graduate Coordinator for the Iona College Criminal Justice Department
Fri., Dec. 6, 2019: “Free Prison Phone Calls” Show, Guests to be Announced.
Fri. Dec. 20, 2019: John Hamilton, CEO, Liberation Programs
Fri., Jan. 17, 2020: Serena Ligouri, Executive Director, New Hour for Women & Children – L.I.

Feb. 7, 2020: David Garlock, Program Director, New Person Ministries, Lancaster, PA
Fri., Mar. 20, 2020: Tiheba Bain

Season Two Guests:

Fri., Sept. 9, 2018: Kennard Ray, CT Unlock the Vote and Candidate for CT State Legislator
Fri., Sept. 21, 2018: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50
Fri., Oct. 5, 2018: Sue Gunderman & Beth Hines, CT Reentry Roundtables
Fri., Oct. 19, 2018: Venice Michalsen, Assoc. Professor of Justice Studies, Montclair State University
Fri., Nov. 16, 2018: Andrew Clark, Director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, Central Connecticut State University
Fri., Dec. 7, 2018: Glenn E. Martin, Founder/Consultant of GEM Trainers and Past-President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA
Fri., Dec. 21, 2018: Fernando Muniz, CEO of Community Solutions, Inc., and community leader Rosa Correa.
Fri., Jan. 4, 2019: New Years Retrospective Show Looking Back at Past CJI Guests.
Fri. Jan. 18, 2019: Peter Henning, Law Prof. at Wayne State University and “White Collar Watch” columnist for the NY Times.
Fri., Feb. 1, 2019: Jeffrey Deskovic, CEO of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation who was Exonerated after Serving 16 Years in Prison
Fri., Feb. 15, 2019: Jeffrey Abramowitz, Executive Director for Reentry Services, JEVS Human Services, Philadelphia.
Fri., Mar. 1, 2019, Rollin Cook, CT Commissioner of Correction
Fri., Mar. 15, 2019: Dieter Tejada, Justice Impacted Criminal Justice Advocate
Fri., Apr. 5, 2019: John Rowland, Former CT Governor
Fri., Apr. 19, 2019: Gregg D. Caruso, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning & Co-Director of the Justice Without Retribution Network at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Fri., May 3, 2019: Michael Taylor, CEO of Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center in the Greater New Haven area
Fri., May 17, 2019: Tarra Simmons, Esq., Attorney & Criminal Justice Reform Advocate, Washington State
Fri., June 7, 2019: Louis L. Reed, National Organizer for #Cut50, Part Deux!
Fri., June 21, 2019: Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop

Sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven – Now More Than Ever.

June 9 2019

Radio/Podcast: Jeff on Defy & Hustle with Noreen Ehrlich, WGCH 1490 am Greenwich, June 19, 2019

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From Defy & Hustle: OPIOID ADDICTION, FRAUD, PRISON & now MINISTRY

Radio/Podcast: Hear the transformational story of Reverend Jeff Grant on Defy & Hustle Radio with Noreen Ehrlich and Kelly Trepanier on WGCH.com or WGCH 1490AM Greenwich in which we discussed ethics, white collar crime, money, morality and learn how Progressive Prison Ministries helps individuals, families and organizations start their lives over after white collar and nonviolent incarceration issues.

He’s been through the darkness and now he helps others regain health and love.

YOU MUST HEAR HIS STORY!

Listen on Defy & Hustle’s website:

Defy & Hustle Radio W/ Rev. Jeff Grant

Get help: prisonist.org

May 22 2019

Guest Blog: Recovering from My Parents, by Paul Williams

Jeff Grant Blog AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism, ex-pat, JEFF GRANT, kilian jornet, opioid use disorder, opioids, parents, paul williams, prisonist.org, recovery, rich roll, rich roll podcast, second chance, second opinion, spirituality, substance abuse, The Nantucket Project, U.K.

Paul’s email to me, after hearing my interview on the Rich Roll podcast, was moving and powerful. It reminded me so much of my recovery from my own parents that I contacted him in the U.K. (he’s a Brit, his father now lives in the U.S.) and asked him if we could post it as a guest blog. He was thrilled to be of service to others and suspected that giving his story light would be therapeutic for himself, as well. Please feel free to email him your thoughts and comments. Blessings, Jeff

____________________

The relationship between my mother and father broke down when I was four. It was 1972.

My father by his own admission was lost in the world you talk about in your ‘Second Chances’ episode with Rich Roll – white collar, corporate, big money, occasionally absent and estranged from family life. Working so hard he missed that his marriage was falling apart. I wasn’t around to watch him crash but he did. It tore me apart when he left and it took me a very long time to develop the ability to articulate and accept the pain. I nurtured strategies to numb his absence – as I grew older I relied heavily on a close circle of trust. I chose those helpers carefully.

My mother was repeating a ‘he was a drunk’ mantra, her language was unhelpful, I didn’t want to hear it, the episode had unsettled me and he was gone. I don’t recall her ever trying to console me. She quickly remarried – the man being one of my father’s best friends. Time passed and when I hit my mid teens I began to want for another perspective on this. In my heart I knew something didn’t add up – there were events that I experienced as a toddler that did not match my mothers recollections.

Of course adolescence invited all the traps you can imagine. Happy now to be away from home I hid out – escaping my trauma with bad life choices, pushing boundaries to breaking point, alcohol, clubs and drugs. London in the early nineties was pretty much party central. Fun to a degree – in the end it ground me down, it made me sick and I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

I married – I would have loved my father to have been at our wedding. My mother attended – with both her boyfriend and my ‘stepfather’, neither of those men were capable of replacing a blood bond. Today I am still married – we have a twenty year old. Healthy and happy, at university and enjoying his time – I have given him everything I missed out on – most of all my presence. He recognizes it.

Ten years ago (2009) a sequence of events brought my father and I together again. A situation I had all but written off – he had been absent for so very long that I had started to believe was never going to happen. The gift I received was not the ‘drunk’ my mother had described (people can change!)- it was a man years deep into sobriety and now working successfully in recovery. I was introduced to the AA way and bore witness to the 12 steps in action.

There were nearly forty years of mystery, unknown circumstances to discover together. There was much catching up to do, we engaged in a discussion framing the trauma we both experienced and since the reunion I have achieved much.

It was clear I needed and sought out help – seeing a counselor was hugely useful. I then decided to go back to school (entry level counseling), volunteered for a spell – playing soccer with teenage boys and spending time with socially isolated elderly men, I stopped drinking around three and half years ago, took up running. It wasn’t obvious how meeting my father would effect me but I can be certain it made me question old ways. Change was required.

Life now is settled. I’m content, I’m grateful – there are aspects that could be better. Namely career and income, I put some of this down to neglectful parenthood. In my teens when support would have been useful my mothers second marriage was crumbling – my stepfather was insignificant in that he was absent and working abroad, I rarely had time with him. There was no bond, no connection – writing this now I still cannot recognise his approach to fatherhood. I navigated my way through the later stages of school and further education with unremarkable results. I make things work today with a minimum wage job, my wife has the better income – if it wasn’t for her…

It must be said there are advantages that come with this. Work is done at 40hrs – it gives me a healthy amount of time to attend to family and fitness. Running has been a revelation – I reached a goal of running 1000 miles and climbed Snowdon & Pen Y Fan last year, two of the UK’s highest mountains. I’m competing now with race results I can be content with. This was how I came across Rich Roll (the podcast with elite athlete Kilian Jornet was the first time I watched him).

Long term goals are aimed in the direction of counseling and men’s health. Men can be pretty rubbish when it comes to this ‘stuff’ – I know. I’ve got the scars. This is a story full of hope, belief, trust, promise, forgiveness, acceptance, it is a tale of resilience, it is raw and human – there are few that can tell me now that miracles don’t happen! I look forward to the day whereupon this becomes someone else’s inspiration.

Paul Williams

Hill Runner, Husband, Father, Son, Online Sales Manager, Sober, Helper, L2 CPCAB in Counselling Skills (ICSK-L2).

[email protected]

May 15 2019

New Haven Independent: From Community Health Patient To CEO

Jeff Grant Blog babz rawls ivy, community foundation for greater new haven, community health center, cornell scott-hill, criminal justice, criminal justice insider, criminal justice insider with babz rawls ivy and jeff grant, criminal justice reform, incarceration, JEFF GRANT, michael r taylor, michael taylor, new haven independent, opioid use disorder, opioids, prison, prisoner reentry, redemption, second chance, wnhh

by Markeshia Ricks | Reprinted from New Haven Independent, May 14, 2019

When Cornell Scott Hill Health Center CEO Michael Taylor was a kid growing up in West Philadelphia, he didn’t know that he would one day lead one of Connecticut’s oldest and largest community health centers.He just knew he wanted to help people like his friends who one by one found themselves incarcerated.

“Very simply put, I am a kid still from the ghetto in Philadelphia,” he told Jeff Grant, co-host of WNHH FM’s “Criminal Justice Insider,” during a recent episode.

“That was my upbringing. When you are raised in that kind of environment, where people face sometimes extraordinary challenges just in everyday life. If you have a heart you want to find ways of helping people.”

Taylor had a heart. He also had eight other friends with whom he was “thick as thieves and did everything together.”

After watching each of the boys he grew up with tangle with the criminal justice system at some point in their lives, Taylor said ,he knew he wanted something different. He’d hoped to become a doctor as a way to help people who grew up as he did, but he wasn’t very good at science. He pursued a degree in accounting from Northeastern University in Boston.

“I feel very blessed that I have been able to escape that and turn my life in a different direction,” Taylor said. “I give a great deal of credit for that to my parents and by the grace of God.”

He didn’t forget those friends. He still keeps in touch with those boys, turned men, whom he considers “lifelong friends.”

“Some were never able to recover from their incarceration experience, and their lives are quite hard,” he said,

Taylor’s background and the connections that he maintains to his friends influenced his decision to enter the health care field on the business side. He started his career in hospital administration in Boston. He worked for a number of large healthcare accounting and consulting firms before getting involved in the community health center movement back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He estimated to Grant that he has worked in some 300 health centers across the country over the years.

Before coming to Cornell Scott in 2008, first as a consultant, then as chief operating officer, and now as the CEO, he had an epiphany.

“The epiphany was that I was a health center patient as a kid,” Taylor recalled. “I didn’t know it at the time. To me, it was just the doctor’s office.”

Taylor ended up serving on the board of that very community health center in West Philadelphia, Spectrum Health Service, that he visited as a child. He’s also friends with the center’s current CEO. Now he is at the helm of a community health center that he said is in the top 1 percent of providers in the country of medical and dental services. Cornell Scott also provide an array of behavioral health services including mental health and substance abuse help, services that are often necessary for successful reintegration after incarceration. The center has undergone an expansion to provide more of those services.

“It’s sort of a circle of life,” he said.

“Criminal Justice Insider” is sponsored by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Previous articles based on the program:

May 13 2019

The Rich Roll Podcast: The Awakening Of Jeff Grant: From Addiction & Incarceration To Prison Ministry

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Reprinted from The Rich Roll Podcast, May 9, 2019, Episode 440

Our White Collar/Nonviolent Online Support Group meets Mondays, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT. Details at prisonist.org.

From Rich Roll:

An epidemic of colossal proportions, millions struggle with substance addiction. Suffering in silence, they too often slip through the cracks, desperate and alone.

As a society, it’s incumbent upon us to better address the problem. Improve our collective understanding of its underlying causes. And enhance access to the resources required to heal the decaying hungry ghosts among us.

It is for these reasons I felt compelled to share the story of Rev. Jeff Grant – a former well-respected New York City attorney who got hooked on painkillers and started making decisions so bad, he lost everything.

Like so many, Jeff’s using started rather innocently in the aftermath of a basketball injury. But it didn’t take long before the tectonic plates of his ethical landscape began to shift. Under the influence, he perpetrated a series of financial misdeeds that led to losing control of his law firm. A suicide attempt prompted sobriety, but the long shadow cast by past actions revisited Jeff with a felony fraud conviction and a federal prison sentence.

Video on YouTube:

After serving 18 months, Jeff was faced with re-entry. His old life was no longer an option. He had to create an entirely new one.

Searching for a meaningful spiritual life line to help make sense of his transgressions and inform his trajectory moving forward, Jeff entered the Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York, with a focus in Christian Social Ethics.

Upon graduation, he began serving at an inner-city church in Bridgeport, Connecticut as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. It is here that Jeff finds his calling assisting convicted felons and their families to navigate the treacherous waters of civilian re-entry.

Now an ordained minister with 16+ years of continuous sobriety, Jeff is the co-founder of Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry created to provide confidential support to individuals, families and organizations with white collar incarceration issues. He has been profiled in a variety of media outlets including Inc., Forbes and Business Insider, has graced the stage at The Nantucket Project (where we first met) and hosts the Criminal Justice Insider Podcast.

This is his story.

It’s a conversation about the perils of addiction and the joys of sobriety. It’s about the the opioid epidemic and the prison industrial complex it supports. And it’s about how spirituality and divinity can pave the road to redemption.

Not just a cautionary tale from the perspective of a white collar felon, this is also discussion about what happens to the by-standing family members and loved ones, often overlooked casualties in the perpetrator’s wake.

But ultimately this is a story about absolution. It’s about confronting past misdeeds. Making amends. Finding grace. And giving back to those in need by sharing the experience and wisdom procured along the way.

Click here to listen and peruse the show notes or you can watch our entire conversation on YouTube (please subscribe!) and the podcast is of course available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

May 13 2019

The Rich Roll Podcast: The Awakening Of Jeff Grant: From Addiction & Incarceration To Prison Ministry

Reprinted from The Rich Roll Podcast, May 9, 2019, Episode 440

Our White Collar/Nonviolent Online Support Group meets Mondays, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT. Details at prisonist.org.

From Rich Roll:

An epidemic of colossal proportions, millions struggle with substance addiction. Suffering in silence, they too often slip through the cracks, desperate and alone.

As a society, it’s incumbent upon us to better address the problem. Improve our collective understanding of its underlying causes. And enhance access to the resources required to heal the decaying hungry ghosts among us.

It is for these reasons I felt compelled to share the story of Rev. Jeff Grant – a former well-respected New York City attorney who got hooked on painkillers and started making decisions so bad, he lost everything.

Like so many, Jeff’s using started rather innocently in the aftermath of a basketball injury. But it didn’t take long before the tectonic plates of his ethical landscape began to shift. Under the influence, he perpetrated a series of financial misdeeds that led to losing control of his law firm. A suicide attempt prompted sobriety, but the long shadow cast by past actions revisited Jeff with a felony fraud conviction and a federal prison sentence.

Video on YouTube:

After serving 18 months, Jeff was faced with re-entry. His old life was no longer an option. He had to create an entirely new one.

Searching for a meaningful spiritual life line to help make sense of his transgressions and inform his trajectory moving forward, Jeff entered the Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York, with a focus in Christian Social Ethics.

Upon graduation, he began serving at an inner-city church in Bridgeport, Connecticut as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. It is here that Jeff finds his calling assisting convicted felons and their families to navigate the treacherous waters of civilian re-entry.

Now an ordained minister with 16+ years of continuous sobriety, Jeff is the co-founder of Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry created to provide confidential support to individuals, families and organizations with white collar incarceration issues. He has been profiled in a variety of media outlets including Inc., Forbes and Business Insider, has graced the stage at The Nantucket Project (where we first met) and hosts the Criminal Justice Insider Podcast.

This is his story.

It’s a conversation about the perils of addiction and the joys of sobriety. It’s about the the opioid epidemic and the prison industrial complex it supports. And it’s about how spirituality and divinity can pave the road to redemption.

Not just a cautionary tale from the perspective of a white collar felon, this is also discussion about what happens to the by-standing family members and loved ones, often overlooked casualties in the perpetrator’s wake.

But ultimately this is a story about absolution. It’s about confronting past misdeeds. Making amends. Finding grace. And giving back to those in need by sharing the experience and wisdom procured along the way.

Click here to listen and peruse the show notes or you can watch our entire conversation on YouTube (please subscribe!) and the podcast is of course available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

April 17 2019

Radio Interview: Jeff Discussed the 150th Meeting of the World’s First Online White Collar Support Group on WGCH 1490 Greenwich

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Jeff was interviewed by Tony Savino, News Director of WGCH on April 17, 2019. Big thanks to Tony, Jim Campbell and all at WGCH for all your support. Details below.

Listen to the radio interview (starts at 0:26):

Event: World’s First Confidential Online White Collar/Nonviolent Support Group will Celebrate Its 150th Meeting, April 22, 2019, 7 pm ET

Greenwich, CT – (April 9, 2019) – Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. (www.prisonist.org) proudly announces that it will be hosting the 150^th consecutive weekly meeting of the world’s first and only confidential Online White Collar/Nonviolent Support Group on Monday, April 22^nd at 7:00 pm EDT.

Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div., who developed and hosts the meeting, explained the significance of the milestone meeting. “We are extremely proud that this group gets bigger and better each week. When we started the group three years ago, we had a dream that people with white collar/nonviolent criminal justice issues living in shame, guilt, fear and isolation could form a supportive community to accept full responsibility for our behavior, make amends, and embrace a new life of compassion, empathy and kindness. We support each other and reach out to others suffering in silence.”

Every Monday evening, Progressive Prison Ministries, through its popular criminal justice resource site prisonist.org, hosts the one-hour meeting. Attendance is steadily increasing. “We’ve had over 125 men and women participating from 21 different states – and overseas,” Grant said.

“While everyone who participates in the forum has been prosecuted for a white collar or nonviolent crime, the group is solution oriented and dedicated to understanding and encouragement,” Grant explained.

Several individuals from the group have volunteered their testimonies online.

“This support group has given me an opportunity to share my thoughts, concerns and emotional trauma with a compassionate and understanding group of people who all traveled a similar journey…” said Jeffrey Abramowitz, Pennsylvania

“Finding the group was such a turning point for me as I was lost. The group helped me with my immense feelings of guilt and how to overcome issues that I never knew would exist for me…” Jacqueline Polverari, Connecticut

”I wish that there would have been a White-Collar Support Group when I got out of prison over ten years ago… my pain curve would not have been so steep.” Douglas Mairena, Virginia

Grant explained, “Most white-collar criminals can’t go back to their old lives and careers, so what choice do they really have? Why not embrace a completely new life, with new options, and new opportunities centered on spirituality and doing the right things? The most fortunate are those who figure out that their attempts to solve problems in isolation are not working, and that they no longer have to go it alone.”

For those who would like to participate each week, Progressive Prison Ministries sends out login instructions with a unique link for that week’s meeting. Participants choose to login via video on a computer, tablet or smart phone that is equipped with a camera, or audio only via phone. Support group information and contact information is at https://prisonist.org/white-collar-support-group. Those currently on supervised release, probation or parole, MUST first discuss participation in the group with their parole or probation officer.

About Progressive Prison Ministries: Established in 2012 in Greenwich, Connecticut, Progressive Prison Ministries is the world’s first ministry created to support individuals, families and organizations with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues. More information is available at Progressive Prison Ministries and on its social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About Progressive Prison Ministries’ Co-Founders:

Co-founders Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer were recently featured in a twelve-page article in Greenwich Magazine: “The Redemption of Jeff Grant,” March 2018 issue. Jeff is also the former Executive Director of Family ReEntry, a Bridgeport, CT based criminal justice organization. After an addiction to prescription opioids and serving almost fourteen months in a Federal prison for a white-collar crime he committed when he was a lawyer, Jeff began his own reentry – earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City with a focus in Christian Social Ethics.

For additional information: Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div., (203) 405-6249; [email protected], website: prisonist.org.

April 7 2019

Event: World’s First Confidential Online White Collar/Nonviolent Support Group will Celebrate Its 150th Meeting, April 22, 2019, 7 pm ET

Jeff Grant Recent/Upcoming Events & Appearances babz rawls ivy, criminal justice, criminal justice insider, criminal justice insider with babz rawls ivy and jeff grant, criminal justice reform, douglas mairena, Federal prison, greenwich, hope, incarceration, JEFF GRANT, jeffrey abramowitz, lynn springer, opioid use disorder, opioids, prison, prison coach, prison consultant, prison minister, prison ministry, prisoner reentry, prisonist.org, progressive prison ministries, redemption, second chance, second opinion, The Nantucket Project, white collar, white collar experts, white-collar crime, white-collar support group

Several individuals from the group have volunteered their testimonies online.

”I wish that there would have been a White-Collar Support Group when I got out of prison over ten years ago… my pain curve would not have been so steep.” Douglas Mairena, Virginia

About Progressive Prison Ministries’ Co-Founders:

For additional information: Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div., (203) 405-6249; [email protected], website: prisonist.org.

Testimonials:

“Jeff is a true inspiration to anyone coming home from prison to face the many trials and tribulations that life throws at you. I made a very bad choice in 2009 which led me to a federal indictment and 7 months in Danbury Federal Prison Camp for women and then three months in a halfway house. I had gut wrenching guilt and remorse, and immersed myself in every program available in Danbury. I was seeking self-awareness of who I was and why I veered off my path of good decision making. It was not until I came home and met Jeff Grant that I truly started my journey to redemption and forgiveness. His amazing attitude, coupled with immense experience, brought such clarity to my very foggy existence. Jeff founded a White Collar Support Group and invited me to join in. Finding that group was such a turning point for me as I was lost. The group helped me with my immense feelings of guilt and how to overcome adversities that I never knew would exist for me. I am grateful to Jeff and all the men and women in that group and feel so fortunate to know I am not alone in my journey. Due to Jeff, I am able to give back to the women I now work with within the criminal justice system by utilizing my strengths, experience and educational background. “ – Jacqueline Polverari, MSW, Advocate Women’s Incarceration Issues, Connecticut

“Shortly after my release in September 2015, I was guided to Jeff’s door by complete chance and little did I know that I had just hit the proverbial “reentry” lottery that would help shape and change my life. I asked for his guidance about how I could possibly return to society as a once respected trial lawyer who was now branded a convicted felon. After words of support, Jeff suggested that I join the White Collar Support Group which met each week via the Internet. Not sure that I could even log in, as I was still living in a halfway house. I managed to find a library or satellite to check in, and can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. This support group has given me an opportunity to share my thoughts, concerns and emotional trauma with a compassionate and understanding group of people who all traveled a similar journey and who all have now become good friends. There is no question that those who have experienced the criminal justice system all face common problems, barriers and trauma as we begin our reintegration into society. I am proud to say that I am associated with this fine group of people and hope and pray that some day we can share the lessons and benefits of the peer support and mentoring that has helped me to find my passion and purpose in life. Thank you!” – Jeffrey Abramowitz, Pennsylvania

“I received an invitation from Jeff Grant of Progressive Prison Ministries in August 2016 to attend a White Collar Support Group meeting. I was reluctant and hesitant about accepting the invitation because I had my reservation about what this group was going to tell me about serving time in a Federal Prison and the challenges and difficulties post incarceration. Being a convicted felon, I have endured a multitude of challenges post incarceration. To be frank incarceration was the easy part and the biggest challenge was how I was going to reintegrate myself into society once I got home and how I was seen as “enriched uranium” by others. I left federal prison psychologically and emotionally broken, I was a wreck! I was released from federal prison in the summer of 2008 and it took me seven years to deal with the psychological carnage and to obtain inner peace. Looking back at this journey I wish that there would have been a White-Collar Support Group when I got out of prison and my pain curve would not have been so steep. Getting on Jeff’s call was a breath of fresh air as I was able to meet other men and women who had endured the shame and embarrassment of being a convicted felon. Jeff brings a spiritual component to his group which in my opinion is critical as it helps with the healing process. I applaud Jeff for creating this organization as it helps convicted felons who have been ostracized by society in providing ministerial counseling, empathy, compassion and support. I have met some incredible people in this group and I look forward to being an active participant for many years.” – Douglas Mairena, Virginia

When I first joined the White Collar Support Group, I was nervous and not committed. I heard there were other women on the call but they were not on the first couple of calls I was on. I felt anxious as the only person of color on the calls as well as the only woman. Over time, I developed more trust and became more vulnerable to the group. I have never felt pressured to share or be anyone different on these calls. I now look forward to our weekly time because it is the one time a week when I feel whole regardless of whether I am having an “up” day or a “down” day. There is nothing like a shared experience with people who have walked your walk and know exactly what you are talking about. When new people come to the calls, I am eager to put a metaphorical arm around their shoulders and remind them of what they already know but have temporarily forgotten: “You will survive. You will have some up days. You will have some down days but we are all here for you. And…. Yes, you will survive. Life will never be the same again but you will survive. You will discover that you are really an amazing person in the process. You will survive.”

So many people come to the call in a complete state of panic. Their situation is not what they bargained for. They are losing everything they once knew. They want to know how to make it all go away. They want to know how they can regain everything they are afraid of losing. The calls become a place where your entire humanity, not just your mistakes, are affirmed and upheld as valuable. The calls are the one place of refuge where we are reminded that we are NOT, in any way shape or form, our crimes. The calls are one place where our whole humanity is affirmed. We do not give legal advice but we give soul support that helps build resilience. And in the long run, it is a game of resilience.

The best part of these calls over the last couple of years has been taking relationships off-line. I have met several of the men and women that have been on the calls. They are more than friends. They are Anam Cara, the Celtic word for “Soul Friend.” I love our transparency. I love how we are all striving to be our best selves. I love the support and love I receive. I love the celebrations of our successes no matter how small and I love the encouragement I receive when I am down. Most of all, I have turned this into an accountability group. I still wrestle with why I made the poor decisions I made and committed a financial crime. I do not want to be that person. I want to be a person that makes smart decisions. I want to be a person that is fully aware of the ethical impact of my decisions on other people and also on institutions. On the calls, I continue to get help in the areas that I feel the weakest. I know that because of these calls and the support and non-judgment that I receive, that I am able to grow beyond the limitations that my crime has placed on my life. – Anonymous, Georgia

As a practicing attorney in a one-man firm, I took money from my client trust account to help meet business expenses and to keep my own household afloat. Of course, I knew this was wrong and that eventually it would catch up with me. A few months ago it did, so now I am facing a prison sentence of two or three years.

During the months following my indictment I was fortunate enough to find the website created by Jeff Grant as a ministry to non-violent white collar criminals. Jeff is a former attorney, a convicted felon, an ex-convict, and an ordained minister. At a time when it seemed my life lay in ruins I was welcomed into a caring White Collar Support Group of individuals who are facing or, perhaps more importantly, have already faced, terms of imprisonment for crimes like my own. The majority are former convicts who have a true mission to help each other grow back into this world outside, to share the wisdom earned through their experiences and to acknowledge positive aspects of these years.

The group has weekly meetings, on line with real-time video conferencing. Over the past several months I have felt the power of belonging with a very special new set of friends. So much of my experience has isolated me from the community I used to know. Jeff’s group has provided a fellowship of people with whom I related immediately. This resource is also providing me with practical advice as I prepare to enter the prison system. The group inspires me every time we meet. Though I’m not a member of any faith in particular, I know a blessing when I see one. My profound thanks to Jeff and to those who gather here with him. – Anonymous, Maine

Link to additional testimonials here.

April 4 2019

Video: Jeff Grant: Opioid Addiction to Prison to White Collar Prison Ministry

Jeff Grant Articles, Media, Recent/Upcoming Events & Appearances, Videos criminal justice, criminal justice insider with babz rawls ivy and jeff grant, Federal prison, greenwich, greenwich leadership forum, incarceration, JEFF GRANT, opioid use disorder, opioids, prison, prison coach, prison consultant, prison minister, prison ministry, prisoner reentry, prisonist.org, progressive prison ministries, The Nantucket Project, white collar, white collar experts, white-collar crime, white-collar support group

Opioid Addiction to Prison for a White Collar Crime to Divinity School to Co-Founding the World’s First Ministry Created to Support Individuals, Families & Organizations with White Collar/Nonviolent Incarceration Issues (short video).

March 3 2019

Testimony: Before the CT State Appropriations Committee Relating to Medication Assisted Treatment in Prison, March 4, 2019

Jeff Grant Blog appropriations committee, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, Family ReEntry, greenwich, JEFF GRANT, opioid use disorder, opioids, prison, prison minister, prisoner reentry, prisonist.org, progressive prison ministries, redemption, reentry, second chance, second chance society, white-collar crime

H.B. No. 7148, AN ACT CONCERNING THE STATE BUDGET FOR THE BIENNIUM ENDING JUNE THIRTIETH 2021, AND MAKING APPROPRIATIONS THEREFOR.

Good evening, Senator Formica, Senator Lavielle, Senator Osten, Representative Walker, and members of the Appropriations Committee. My name is Jeff Grant and I serve as Co-Founder and Minister of Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. (Greenwich, CT), a nonprofit founded in 2012; our mission is to serve individuals and families with white collar and nonviolent incarceration issues. From 2009 – 2019, I served on the Board of Directors and then as Executive Director of Family ReEntry, Inc. (Bridgeport, CT); founded in 1984, Family ReEntry’s mission is to develop, implement, and share innovative and cost-effective solutions to the unprecedented numbers of people involved in the criminal justice system. I have also served on the Board of Directors of Community Partners in Action (Hartford, CT), on the Board of Advisors of ReEntry Survivors and the P.R.I.D.E. Program (Bridgeport, CT) and on the Editorial Board of the book, The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration has Hijacked the American Dream (Southport, CT).

I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the commitment that this administration has undertaken to follow and expand upon the bold steps that the prior administration took to reduce the numbers of people in prison through criminal justice reform and Second Chance Society legislation.

I served almost fourteen months in a federal prison for a white-collar crime I committed in 2001 after an over ten (10+) year addiction to prescription opioids. I am now over sixteen (16+) years clean and sober. I kicked the habit in the State of Connecticut after committing my crimes, attended recovery meetings in this state until I went to prison and thereafter, attended court-mandated drug and alcohol counseling upon my return and have lived and remained sober in Connecticut for the over eleven (11+) years since my return from prison. Without support from my wife, the faith community, opportunities to serve this state’s criminal justice nonprofits when I came back from prison, and the larger Connecticut social services safety net, it is unlikely that I would be standing before you today as a tax-paying citizen, non-profit leader and advocate for enlightened criminal justice.

With more individuals addicted to, and incarcerated for crimes related to, opioid addiction, it is all the more urgent that we increase adopt legislation directly responsive thereto. Please note:

Research shows that forty-four (44%) percent of fatal overdoses in Connecticut occurred among individuals who had a history of having been detained by the Department of Correction [i]. It is easy to see that effective treatment in correctional facilities for alcohol and drug addiction, and specifically opioid use disorder, can have a dramatic effect on reducing these overdoses.
Progressive treatment for opioid use disorder is good fiscal policy. Compare the cost of incarceration by inmate in CT (in 2015, $62,159 per year) against the cost of comprehensive Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) (as little as $4,000 per year) [ii].
A 2006 national opinion survey likewise indicates that the general public also favors rehabilitative services for offenders, as opposed to a punishment-only approach by an almost 8 to 1 margin [iii].

As the number of people with addiction to opioids continues swell, it would behoove the legislature to focus on solutions for those in state custody. Everyone will be the beneficiary from these investments that will help restore healthy families, increase public safety, rebuild our communities and continue to reduce our prison population.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Respectfully submitted,

Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div.

[i] Yale’s 2016 plan for Connecticut Opioid Response (CORE) states that Retrieved from http://www.plan4children.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/COREInitiativeForPublicComment.pdf

[ii] See. “Confronting an Epidemic: The Case for Eliminating Barriers to Medication- Assisted Treatment of Heroin and Opioid Addiction,” The Legal Action Center, March 2015. and “The Price of Prisons 2015: State Spending Trends,” Table 1, The Vera Institute, https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends-prison-spendingSource: One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections; PEW Center on the States; March 2009; page 22

[iii] Krisberg, B. & Marchionna, S. (2006). Attitudes of U.S. Voters Toward Prisoner Rehabilitation and Reentry Policies. Oakland, CA: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

This written testimony was submitted by the author for the record.