Ministry is held at parish jail, looks to expand monthly

By: TONY MARKS
Editor

Did you hear the one about a Bangladeshi redneck, who was a former atheist, and an ex-convict, who was serving a life sentence in Angola, walk into a jail? This question might not have the same punch line of when two guys walk into a bar, but it has a message of hope that is meant for those members of society who are incarcerated.
This message of hope comes from James2Ministry and is spoken to those in the Evangeline Parish Jail on a quarterly basis.
This prison ministry began in the parish when Lieutenant Scott Clarkson began working at the jail after coming from Grant Parish, where he first encountered James2Ministry.
Lieutenant Clarkson, once he got to Evangeline Parish, contacted the organization and said, “I’m in a jail where we have no common areas, but we are going to do what we do.”
He asked James2Ministry if they could send such things as Bibles and hygiene products. “It’s just gone from there,” said Lieutenant Clarkson.
Whenever James2Ministry holds a service at the jail, it usually buys plate lunches to serve the inmates. However, for the latest service held Saturday, April 9, Deputy George Washington Goldman contacted Teet’s if they could donate some meat to barbeque. Teet’s obliged and donated chicken.
For Assistant Warden and First Lieutenant Barry Giglio, that shows “it looks like the community wants to help us to execute the plans that we are trying.”
Evangeline Parish Sheriff Charles Guillory is committed to ministry in the jail, but he is limited to what he can do because of current jail conditions. “We’ll do what we can do here,” said First Lieutenant Giglio. “We’re implementing what is possible in this small facility.”
Plans are in the works to expand the prison ministry once a new parish jail is constructed. First Lieutenant Giglio said, “We have people willing to help us to donate to build a chapel on the grounds separate from the jail where these guys can go and practice their religion.”
Other plans are to hold the ministry every month instead of once a quarter. While that is transitioning to a more regular basis, one question remains. Who are the Bangladeshi redneck and the ex-convict?

Reginald Watts
The ex-convict is Reginald Watts, who is 18 months out of serving a life sentence. “I did 25 years in Louisiana State Penitentiary for a series of robberies,” he explained. “I was an habitual offender, so I got life without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. In essence, I was to die in prison. But God saw something different.”
Watts served the last 14 months of his sentence in Grant Parish, which is where he met Lieutenant Clarkson.
“I went to Grant Parish as an inmate chaplain,” Watts said. “I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go to the police barracks because I needed the governor. In order for me to get out of prison, I needed the governor of Louisiana to sign me out of prison. Well, God had a different plan to get me out of prison.”
Once Watts arrived in Grant Parish, he got involved with James2Ministry. “Fourteen months after arriving there,” he shared, “I was a free man. The day that I left prison, the sheriff and the warden both opened the doors, and I came out.”
Watts did not grasp the magnitude of that event until he viewed footage of what happened. He said, “I was just leaving prison. I didn’t care if Humpty Dumpty opened up the doors. I was just getting out of prison, but it was very significant because it was two of the highest figures there to be opening the door for an inmate.”
Currently Watts is chaplain in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. How he got there, according to Watts, shows how God has a sense of humor. While serving his sentence in Angola, he completed Warden Burl Cain’s theology program. Two hours after being released from jail in Grant Parish, he received a phone call from Cain, who is currently commissioner of Mississippi Department of Corrections, to be a chaplain.
“I said no because I just got out of prison,” said Watts. “No way possible. I can’t do it. (Cain) said, ‘Well, Jesus needs you.’ So, I prayed on it and called my prayer partners. I was hoping all of them would say no, but, to a man, every last one of them said ‘God wants you to go to Mississippi.’”
Twenty days after leaving prison, Watts was back in prison as a chaplain. “Now, I do a lot of prison ministry,” he stated. “Even though I’m a chaplain, I travel on weekends when I can afford it and go to different prisons and churches and tell my story. I will probably tell my story another 500 thousand times, and I don’t mind one bit. If it’s going to help somebody not have to go through what I went through.”
He went on to say, “Here, in this prison, I find something we found in Angola. There are officers and a sheriff who care. In this prison, our goal is to give them the Gospel. I didn’t come to tell them about hope, we come to show them hope because I am a hope story.”

Tapas Sarma
The other character in the equation is Tapas Sarma, a native of Bangladesh and a former atheist. “I’m the only Bangladeshi redneck in the State of Louisiana,” he quipped. “I married a girl in Pineville 23 years ago. Because of Hurricane Katrina, I moved to Grant Parish because that’s where she is from.”
A year after the hurricane sent Sarma to Grant Parish, he got saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ and soon began serving wherever he could. Along the way, he met a prison minister who needed a knee replacement.
“He could not continue to preach until his knee got better,” said Sarma. “He was looking for help. That was in the Grant Parish prison. That’s how I ended up going to prison for the first time in my life.”
Along the way, Sarma became a board member of James2Ministry and the director of missions. “We don’t have funds to do a lot of things,” he said, “but Christians are amazing. Through the donations of strangers, we are able to provide a message of hope so prisoners would change their thoughts and change their hearts as they come out.”
What Christ has done in his life, Sarma wants to share with those who are in prison. “We do not force anything on anybody,” he said. “We do not feed anybody a Bible, but we are going to tell them my personal story of how Christ has changed my life.”
While spreading the Gospel, Sarma is also working to combat recidivism, which is the tendency of criminals to return to prison. “What I couldn’t understand,” he said, “is what is so attractive about prison that somebody would come back for four and five times. I realized, by studying this, that we who are outside are not doing what we’re supposed to do for a man or a woman when they step out of prison for the first time.”
As Sarma explained, society is not accepting, receiving, or grooming released prisoners in order for them not to go back to prison for a second time. “It is a failure of us,” he expressed. “We are not doing our job, so our sons and daughters and grandchildren are going back to prison over and over. Our struggle is to fight recidivism.”
Sarma said of his mission of spreading the Gospel and fighting recidivism, “God gave us the joy of loving people who I don’t know. When I show up, I feel the joy in their heart, and that gives me joy. We will continue to do this as long as the Lord allows us to do it.”
First Lieutenant Giglio concluded, “We feel blessed to have these guys come to our facility to help inmates. We welcome them with open arms, and it’s a pleasure and an honor to meet these guys and to help facilitate their mission.”