Getting Results Award winner is changing lives from behind bars

The Inside Out Jail Ministry helps inmates successfully reenter society

ORLANDO, Fla. – Tammy Fisher is this week's Getting Results Award Winner.

Fisher, Founder of Inside Out Jail Ministries, has been helping inmates at the Orange County Jail find a path to success for 15 years.

"We do that by education, preparing them for the transition and the challenges that they will face and how to overcome them," Fisher says from her home office.

These days Fisher spends a good portion of her time behind a desk coordinating paperwork for the dozens of former inmates she's helping transition. But she'd much rather be working one-on-one with the women behind bars at the Orange County Jail.

"They have so much to offer," she says of the inmates, most according to her are there for vice crimes such as drugs or sex crimes. Many suffering from past abuse.  

Her faith based program takes on a case management role for everyone enrolled. It starts before they're released but continues long after that in many cases.  "We do the steps that are needed," she says. "It could be finding a home, so we help with interim housing, we're helping with transportation, we're helping with phone calls."

Steven Crawford has been a part of that success. Crawford found himself in and out of jail and prison countless times before the age of 30. Three years ago he discovered ISO Ministries and it would be his last time as an inmate.

"To be honest it has affected every facet of my life," he says.

Today Crawford is married and excited to start his own cabinetry and kitchen remodeling business. He says he owes his success to Fisher and the Inside Out Jail Ministries. He just recently entered the jail again, this time as a counselor for the ministry.  

"It's a miracle that I'm alive. It's even more of a miracle that I've got a chance, that I'm actually being a productive member of society. I'm not just alive but I'm living."  

   


About the Author:

Paul is a Florida native who graduated from the University of Central Florida. As a multimedia journalist, Paul enjoys profiling the people and places that make Central Florida unique.

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