Corrections_Today_September_October_2020_Vol.82_No.5

Correctional Chaplain Perspectives

CEOs and successful lead- ers in various capacities in the business world. Smith began asking them questions about their experiences, and he listened closely to their success and failure stories, as they related to the corporate world. Those encounters, and his newfound faith, were powerful enough to change the entire trajectory of Smith’s life. Upon release, Smith used the principles and knowl- edge he learned from his prison peers to make finan- cial investments and start his own business. He sold that business in 2019 and

The story behind the name Many involved in criminal justice and corrections view incarceration as having the following four basic purposes: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation and rehabilitation. As the 4 th Purpose foundation was being constructed, Smith kept getting hung up on that fourth word: reha- bilitation. To rehabilitate something means “to return it to its former con- dition,” but, as Smith likes to point out, he was never right to begin with. He didn’t need to go back to his old way of life; he needed to be shown there was another way. Growing up with his mother in a single-parent household, living in government housing and being removed from his home at the young age of 11 due to an abusive stepfa- ther, it may not come as a surprise that he had racked up 10 felonies by the time he was 16. This is why transformation has become Smith’s operative word of choice. During his incarceration, Smith found redemp- tion through faith in Jesus Christ. He also happened to be locked up with several highly educated, white-collar criminals. Those men were noted

Photo courtesy of Kodi Schutte and 4 th Purpose

Smith and ACA President-Elect Tony Parker visit a Tennessee facility. Parker is also on the 4 th Purpose Board of Directors.

COVID-19 crisis

invested over $10 million of the proceeds to start 4 th Purpose Foun- dation. Prison turned out to be a place of transformation for Josh, but this isn’t the case for most inmates. 4 th Purpose Foundation seeks to research, develop, support, promote and advocate for evidence-based best practices that positively im- pacts the prison setting so that life transformation is a real possibility for the inmate population.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has required almost every organization, agency and business to reimagine itself. The limited-to-no access to facilities has motivated us to think differently about how to carry out our work in the present pandemic situation. Smith knew firsthand the panic and discouragement that can mount when inmates are locked down even tighter and shut away even further from volunteers, family and friends from the outside world. Smith’s period of incarceration coincided with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which also resulted in a prolonged shutdown and loss of out- side visits. By putting some of our foundation’s prison reform initiative on hold, we have been able to focus all our efforts on the creation of a “digital visit” to stand in the gap, in a creative way, during the COVID-19 crisis. →

4 th Purpose Foundation seeks to research, develop, support, promote and advocate for evidence-based best practices that positively impacts the prison setting so that life transformation is a real possibility for the inmate population.

Corrections Today September/October 2020 — 11