Kevin is the newest member of the core community. Having been homeless, an ex-offender with difficult drug and disability issues.   Kevin’s first encounter with Fr. Russ was under a court referral community service program.

      Kevin initially was not easy to work with; and did not seem ready to change his life. He left the court program doing his own thing for several months than came-back to Father Russ asking for another chance.

     “There is a great deal of difference between court programs and “reality life encounter”.  Which is our program for rehabilitation. It does not require the person to join our core community; but it is extremely difficult and we use an unconventional confrontational system much like a high intensity boot-camp program.”  It is a one-chance system of changing behavior, geared for last hope and the most difficult of offenders.

 Father’s System for change in criminal-behavior has been modeled over many years and goes back to his prison movement days of the sixties. When alternative to corrections and halfway house were first being developed.  Kevin asked to participate under father’s guidance and made a commitment to handle the program and the confrontation he would be put threw.

  Kevin did not last very long on his first try, under the barrage of father, and what Kevin perceived as humiliation and abuse by confrontation.

 Kevin left the program and went to Hartford. Where it was shortly found that he got himself in trouble again with drugs and the court. Kevin reached out for the third time for Fr. Russ. In an un-presidential move father went to Kevin talked with him and took Kevin back into his program. 

     Kevin is the first ex-offender that has re-interred “The reality life issues system” of rehabilitation.

  Kevin buckled down and for 90 days did the program and was released from his court case. He further went into a drug program, committed himself to community, completed his first angry management program, and helped further develop the morning feeding program, at the first Congregational Church of New London. A program which father now has him in-charge. Kevin currently has gone longer drug free than any other point in time sense he started using drugs in his child-hood.

 

Father said. When asked why he took Kevin back? “I do not know why I took Kevin back. The Holy Spirit moved me I would have to say. He has great potential. I do not view Kevin as an extreme hard-core criminal.

    I guess that is what got him the second chance with me. He has been more a danger to himself. Know he has a real chance to benefit many people around him. He love’s cooking and he is serving in the discipleships program. We pray he does well for himself. I have two people that I am not sure our way of extreme confrontation is proper for their life situation. One is not an ex-offended in any-way and Kevin I view as having issues that may have hurt him more over his years than he hurting anyone else. All I know is what I do works for us. I make no apologies because it is a matter of our survival in a society that has put us on the outside and persecuted us continually for mistakes we have paid for over and over.”