Sep 9, 2002 By Amy Karpinsky 6 min read

Although he is fully aware that not everyone who hears his message will benefit from it, the Rev. Frank Lewis nonetheless continues to preach to a very captive audience. On April 1, the Rev. Lewis became the first full-time chaplain for the Fayette County Prison. Previously, the job was handled by local ministers and residents.

The Bluff, Greene County, native said he received his calling very early on at the age of 7, but even before that was training for his current vocation.

The Rev. Lewis said he first visited a jail at the age of 5, when his great-uncle knew the Greene County sheriff at the time and took him inside the jail.

“Talking to inmates was never a frightening thing for me,” Rev. Lewis said. Now, he is exposed to more than 200 inmates on a daily basis inside Fayette County’s antiquated stone lockup. The Rev. Lewis said he tells inmates he will meet their spiritual needs but won’t “do hacksaws.”

The Rev. Lewis said a year ago he received a call from Good News Jail and Prison Ministry informing him that they were starting a chaplain program at the Fayette County Prison. He said it took months to prepare, during which time he was “jumping through hoops” and taking training courses. The classes included learning how to deal with hostage situations, blood handling and receiving the death notice of an inmate’s relative.

“It was pretty intensive,” he said.

After graduating from West Greene High School, the Rev. Lewis attended Bible School and became a minister. He spent time in New York and New Jersey and for the last eight years, was in Greensburg at the Abundant Life Assembly of God.

With the exception of his experience as a child, the Rev. Lewis said he first became interested in prison ministry by a man attending his church in New York. That man was the county prison chaplain and was getting ready to retire. The Rev. Lewis went on to serve as a prison chaplain in New York for five years.

However, when he moved from New York back to southwestern Pennsylvania, he said, “the doors were closed here.” That changed in time.

The Rev. Lewis said he sees so many inmates who are not really bad or evil people.

“They just got off on the wrong place and just don’t seem to have whole life,” he said. “Many come from broken homes.

“Once they find God, or more like God finds us, it doesn’t matter if they are guilty or innocent. It’s a matter of where they can go,” Rev. Lewis said.

“We all need God in our lives. I want them to get out of jail but justice has to be served.”

The Rev. Lewis said he recently encountered a 19-year-old man who had never been to church. After he started reading the Bible, the Rev. Lewis said he saw a change and the man even asked his mother why she didn’t take him to church.

“They have difficulty with anger. You don’t see a lot of happy inmates,” Lewis said.

While the nationwide average of recidivism for released prisoners is 85 percent, in Fayette County it stands at 87 percent. The Rev. Lewis said if he saves even one young man from returning to a life of crime, in the long run he could save him from potentially 15 or 20 more arrests.

The Rev. Lewis said a recent $100,000 recidivism study showed that every jail with chaplains had a lower return rate of criminals. He said if prisoners enrolled in a 60-day “life living dorm” project, the rate went from 85 to 15 percent.

“I know not everybody will hear me, but some will,” he said. Rev. Lewis said he would consider his job a success if he only got a new person to change their life once a month.

The group that brought the Rev. Lewis to the jail, Good News Jail and Prison Ministry places chaplains in jails. Good News has pastors in Fayette, Westmoreland and Indiana counties. Lewis said there are 221 ministers placed in 23 states and nine countries. After his initial two-year stint, Rev. Lewis must find support in the community from churches and businesses.

He said he recently went to a church and although there were only 14 people in attendance, they pledged $25 a week to his ministry.

The Rev. Lewis said the full-time position was needed at the jail because all the employees are too busy and the church volunteers can’t be there every day.

“Being there I can see their needs,” he said. “So far it has really been wonderful, I have been given an office and a telephone.’

The Rev. Lewis said the chapel where he holds services is in the basement. He said the stone walls create a great sound when the prisoners sing. However, he said the chapel only holds 20 inmates and another 15 can’t attend services.

“The difficulty is the prison was just built to house 66 and it is at 239. There are cots on ranges and the guards are so busy,” he said. “Some never stop.”

The Rev. Lewis said to get the inmates down to the chapel from the six different ranges it almost shuts jail down.

Ironically, Lewis said he can’t preach on Sunday mornings because he’s out at other local churches trying to solicit funds for his program. He said about eight or nine other local ministers volunteer to help out.

“I couldn’t do it without the volunteers,” he said.

Since he began five months ago, the Rev. Lewis said proudly that he had handed out more than 100 Bibles.

For a typical day, Rev. Lewis said he gets in at 8 a.m. and spends one hour doing devotions. At 9 a.m. he begins his rounds, which includes visiting the six ranges; the women and the minimum-security annex. He said that takes about three hours, during which time he uses a notebook to write down requests of inmates. He said many of the inmates are concerned about their families while they are incarcerated.

Rev. Lewis spends the remainder of the workday finding churches to help support him. He said he speaks to any group and all types of churches have opened their doors to him. In fact, Lewis said he was turned down only once.

For more information, or to have Rev. Lewis speak to an organization, call 724-430-1222, ext. 3027.