“How many of you need a Bible?” Chaplain Judy Bratten asks when she greets a group of new female inmates.

Over the past four decades, the number of incarcerated women in the United States has dramatically increased. The majority have experienced physical or sexual trauma in their past, and futile attempts to ease their pain result in the most frequent convictions among women: substance abuse or theft to support their addiction.

Judy tells every woman who asks for a Bible, “This is going to change your life.” But she doesn’t stop there. She helps them learn how to apply God’s Word to their lives to find hope, healing, and new life through Jesus.

“About 70 percent of the people I hand a Bible to invite Christ in their heart for the first time, or they recommit their life to Him.”

As Judy handed one inmate a Bible, the woman said, “Thank you for believing we can be rescued and changed. So many look at us as hopeless.”

Understanding the waves of shame and guilt most of these newly incarcerated women are experiencing, Judy assured her, “He’s the God of hope. It’s never hopeless with Him.” Then Judy wrote “Romans 15:13” in her Bible so she could meditate on the verse: May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit (GNT).

“I have seen many of them determined to turn their lives around, and I’ve seen that many of them have.” Judy is very grateful for the easy-to-understand version of the Bible she receives from the Bible Society.

Through the support of our generous partners, they are helping to provide Bibles so that incarcerated women can discover the love of God even in their darkest times!