Halfway House Gives Ex-Inmates Second Chance

CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — There are more than 41,000 people in prison in North Carolina and, for many of them, it's not the first time.

But a Charlotte program started by an ex-convict is trying to change that.

After spending almost half of his young life in and out of prisons, Jamie McCall said he knew something had to change. Then, he met John Jennings, the founder of Favar Ministries.

"I felt like someone has to give them a chance," Jennings said.

Jennings is giving ex-inmates that chance. A house in north Charlotte's Hidden Valley neighborhood serves as a dormitory, counseling center and home for his faith-based ministry. He said it's a place to live away from the temptations that got young men in trouble before.

And Jennings said he knows all about temptation.

"I wound up having to rob a bank to support my own cause, trying to sell drugs," he said.

Jennings was an inmate and is now part evangelist, part administrator and part life coach to men in his program.

"I knew I had been incarcerated twice so I wanted a different life this time. I wanted a change," Mike Coleman said.

Coleman and David Council were in the same prison in South Carolina when Jennings came to talk about his program. They decided to give it a try.

Coleman has been there for several months, while Council has been there only a few days.

"David's leaning on me to show him to get where I got," Coleman said.

"You can see life much more clearly behind closed doors and think about the things that you used to do," Council said. "I chose not to do those things anymore."

"I teach these men morals, values (and) ethics," Jennings said. "Some had it and lost it (and) some never had it."

Men in the program have to look for jobs, and rules are posted everywhere around the house. Jennings said the most important is also the toughest for men who are hungry for freedom.

"We have a curfew at 6:30 in the afternoon, and I like to explain to the men that that curfew is not to lock you away from the world, but to lock the world away from you," Jennings said. "To protect you from what could drag you back out there."

Not everyone makes it through the program, but Jennings said only about 10 percent of the men who participate go back to prison.

Many more have made it. McCall found a job driving a truck.

"It is hard work," he said. "It's honest work, and by it being honest work, it makes you feel good about yourself."

"I got a goal now, something I've never had," Coleman said. "My goal is to do the six months and be where I need to be."

Jennings' program is funded by churches and other groups with donations. He said it costs about $5,000 a year to keep a man in the halfway house.

To compare, Eyewitness News checked with the Department of Corrections and found it costs an average of $27,000 a year to keep someone in prison.

WSOC