On April 8, a security guard sitting behind bullet-proof glass buzzed in junior Amy Ritter, as well as six other volunteers, some from Biola, a few from nearby churches. Stripped of any cell phones, cash and even pens, the group walked through the corridors of the Southern Youth Correctional Reception Center and Clinic, until they arrived in a room with about 25 waiting inmates.

“I was intimidated,” Ritter said. “Part of me did not want to go.”

Conquering fears

SYCRCC, a part of California’s Division of Juvenile Justice, receives youth with the most serious offenses. Less than 1 percent of the 225,000 youths arrested in California each year end up in a DJJ facility, according to the DJJ website. Crimes of inmates range from assault and robbery, the most common, to homicide and sexual offenses, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s “Characteristics of DJJ Population Report.”

The boys, who range in age from 15 to 24, were all dressed in jeans and “SYCRCC”-branded white T-shirts the night Ritter arrived. Ritter, sophomore Courtnee Hayes and the other volunteers were able to serve the inmates snacks as well as share brief testimonies.

“I think at the end the teens did not want us to leave,” Hayes said. “I think they liked having people around their age hanging out with them.”

Despite Biola’s proximity to Norwalk’s SYCRCC, last November was the first time Biola students have visited SYCRCC since the facility’s Protestant chaplain Charlie Corum, who coordinates these events, began working there 10 years ago.

Inmates often face tough upbringings

When senior Kerri Sanders went to SYCRCC for the first time, independent of the first group, on April 18, she talked with boys facing lengthy sentences. Two of the four boys she was able to sit down with, both 17 or 18, said they had more than 20 years to go.

“You look at them and they’re little boys,” Sanders said. “Even though they’ve probably done a lot of horrible things, God is so capable of redeeming them.”

There is currently a high rate of gang involvement among the inmates, according to Corum. That violent lifestyle can frequently put inmates’ lives at risk. Three of the boys told Sanders that if they were not in prison right now, they would most likely be dead.

“They weren’t grateful to be in prison,” Sanders said. “But they were grateful to be alive.”

Following God’s call

Sanders said the boys wanted to know her favorite Bible verses and some of them eagerly asked for the Bibles Corum brought.

“They were hungry for the Word,” Sanders said.

Corum’s connection to the correctional system started in 1991 when he visited a now-closed youth correctional facility in Whittier, Calif. At the time, he had been a pastor for almost 20 years.

“I stepped down from pastoring because I felt a real burden for the young people I was meeting,” he said.

The handful of Biola students who volunteered at the facility were able to come alongside Corum and the work he has been doing there.

Blessed through visiting inmates

Sanders, Hayes and Ritter all emphasized how overwhelmingly blessed they felt after visiting.

“We need to recognize that all of us are broken and we can’t think we are better than these people,” Sanders said. “What a blessing it is for us to go there. Not to be like, ‘Oh, I have so much to tell you,’ but to learn from them. I can’t even pretend to know what they’ve been through.”

By the end, Ritter’s initial apprehension had disappeared.

“I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “It changes you while you are talking to them. … I think there’s an opportunity to get to know these guys for who they really are, seeing the people they want to become.”

Giving the prison over to God

The banner above the automatic doors of SYCRCC’s security check-in building, prominently displays the vision for this facility: “We are a facility of peace and purpose.”

The six programs Protestant chaplain Charlie Corum runs at SYCRCC are a part of the “Peace and Unity” campaign which was launched in March 2007 by superintendent, and Christian, Cassandra Stansberry. The campaign, which rewards inmates for not committing violent acts, has in the last four years reduced violence at this facility by over 75 percent, according to William Jones the assistant superintendent. Corum has seen a noticeable difference, as have incoming volunteers.

“The administration over the prison, there’s definitely a strong spirituality that has actually created a really unique environment at this particular prison as compared to others,” junior and volunteer Amy Ritter said. “I think that the people in leadership have given God authority over the way things are run … and that has changed how these prisoners behave and how the prison functions.”