Jeremiah Prison Ministry Newsletter
JPM is an outreach of Martinsburg Christian Center, Martinsburg, WV
JANUARY 2014
Revs. Tom & Monica
OUR MISSION & VISION
Our Mission – to help men in
prison reach their fullest in the
Lord.
What we do – Ministering to their
spirit, soul and body, though one
on one mentoring as their spiritual
advisor and friend.
How we began – Jeremiah Prison
Ministry began on November 30,
1999, which was birth out of a
bond for a young man that made a
wrong choice in life..
Our Vision – to be able to go into
the prison chapels without the
inmates having to take us off their
visiting list. “We know with God
ALL things ARE Possible!
72 men have been released in 14
years. We still are ministering to
67 inmates in 5 states.
Please make sure to use
our new address when
sending a donation.
Celebrated 14 years of Prison Ministry in 2013
I WAS IN PRISON AND YOU VISITED ME – MATT. 25:36B
We are serving Him by serving them! His mercy endures forever. Psalm 106:1
VOLUME 14, ISSUE 02
Thankful for 14 years in Prison Ministry……
We have had a great year ministering to those in prison, traveling a lot of miles to
and fro despite our physical trials. We are looking forward to going this coming year
and with you it’s possible, with your financial support and your prayers for with God
all things are possible.
We pray that you will continue to partner with us so we can go to prisons and send
out Bibles, greeting cards, our newsletters to inmates in 5 states, families and
friends in 13 states. We thank you for your support and believing in what we do!
Health Update…..
My back is doing well, Praise the Lord! By the time you get our newsletter I will have
had cataract surgery on my R eye (23rd) and the L eye will be done on the 30th. I had
to start eye drops today… not a good idea to do the newsletter as my eye is dilating.
So if there are typos please forgive in advance! GOD IS FAITHFUL!
Bill Schuette's crusade against juvenile lifers in Michigan by Brian Dickerson
Cruel and unusual: That’s how the U.S. Supreme Court described the law under
which Michigan has condemned some 350 convicts to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for crimes committed before their 18th birthdays. It also
describes Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s cynical campaign to blunt the
impact of the high court’s 2012 ruling that Michigan’s mandatory sentencing
scheme was unconstitutional.
Schuette insists the ruling applies to only teenagers sentenced after 2012, and has
sought to block parole hearings for the 350 juvenile lifers already housed in
Michigan’s prisons on grounds that honoring their constitutional rights would
unduly traumatize their victims’ survivors.
“The families of crime victims must come first,” the attorney general’s
spokeswoman explains.
But that’s a political principle, not a legal one. And it’s the law Schuette vowed to
uphold when he was sworn in three years ago as Michigan’s top law enforcement
official.
Last month, in an order signaling his impatience with Schuette’s foot-dragging, an
exasperated U.S. District Court Judge Corbett O’Meara threatened to appoint a
special master unless the state notified its juvenile lifers that they were entitled to
parole hearings under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama.
Schuette, who knows an unpopular foil when he sees one, quickly sought a stay of
O’Meara’s order, and last week a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit of Appeals
agreed to delay its implementation at least until Schuette has articulated his legal
objections. The attorney general’s crack public relations staff quickly fired off a news
release in which Schuette described the procedural delay as “an early Christmas gift
for families of murder victims.” It is useful to recall that absolutely no one has
Page 2
Keeping you informed
about the PA Courts to
change the sentencing
laws for juvenile offender
serving life without
parole. Keep praying it’s
not over yet!
PRAYER CORNER
~Pray for Kevin, Mike, Domingo,
Michael, & Richard that God blesses
them financially.
~Pray for Larry, Ricky, Lewis, Corey,
Bob, Greg, & Eric to receive favor for
commutation and retrials.
~Pray for Jeremiah as we continue to
believe for a miracle for his release.
~Pray for continued healing for Bob,
Larry, & Harvey.
~Pray our granddaughter Leah she is
still having migraines. Leah is 18!
~Pray for Andy our grandson, he
carries a 3.96 avg. at DSU. He had
surgery & is doing GREAT!.
~Pray for all our family spiritually,
physically and financially.
~Pray continue to for my brother,
Norman. Pray for Tom’s brother,
John, as he is on dialysis.
~Pray for the salvation of the world.
Pray for inmates and their families,
our Nation, our leaders, our military
and their families.
~Pray for prison reform in our nation.
~Pray for Bill our dear friend & his
wife Rose for good health.
~Pray for Dotty & her husband Stan
for good health.
~Pray for us for strength and wisdom
in all we do, that we remain cancer
free and healthy to do God’s work, for
our cars to be mechanically sound.
You are an Extended Hand
and a vital part of this
ministry. Together we are
making a difference with
Jesus Christ, taking life to
a dark place! We go
because you send us.
Thank You so much!
Jeremiah Prison Ministry
Revs. Tom & Monica Cohee
223 Cameo Dr.
Fayetteville, PA 17222
717-352-0080
Fax: 717-352-0392
info@jeremiahprisonministry.com
We’re on the Web!
www.jeremiahprisonministry.com
Your Editor: Rev. Monica Cohee
Pastor Tom’s Preaching Corner
A NEW THING
1st Peter 2:9-10; Look up Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 43:18-29
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: who once were not a
people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but
now have obtained mercy.
God tells us in the book of Isaiah that we are to forget about the things of the past for behold
God is about to do a new thing.God has great plans for your future. Plans for peace. Plans for
success. Plans for a great future and hope.
If you will let go of the past, God will begin to bless you. You will have to get all your failures
under the blood of Jesus Christ. Let God do a new thing.
Our spiritual enemy’s plan is: To hold us hostage to our past. To keep us remembering what
folks did to us. To keep us looking back so we can’t move forward. Paul said, “Forgetting what
lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”
God made you: To soar with the eagles. To be more than a conqueror. To be a giant killer and
to possess the land. Maybe you have failed drastically, but you can get it behind you. All you
have to do is face your failures, repent and trust God for a new beginning. The Bible says, “If
you will diligently obey the Lord, He will command his blessings to come on you.”
God brought Lot and his family out of Sodom and said whatever you do, don’t look back. Lot
was trying to follow God but his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Remember Lot’s wife, God had a great future for her but she was stuck in the past. Don’t look
back anytime God delivers you from: A bad situation. From drugs. From a bad marriage.
Your destiny will change, when you walk away from your past. You can’t help where you’ve
been, but you can help where you’re going. Trust God for a new beginning today
Continued from page 1: recommended that even a single juvenile lifer should be released
except as a corpse. Nothing in the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling or Judge O’Meara’s principled
efforts to enforce it precludes Michigan from sentencing incorrigible juvenile felons to life in
prison or keeping them there. What the court commanded, and O’Meara seeks to compel, is
simply an opportunity for any teenager sentenced to life without parole under Michigan’s now
invalidated law to tell a parole board why he or she should be released after serving at least 25
years in prison.
Even state Rep. Joe Haveman, a Holland Republican whose west Michigan district is among
the most conservative in the state, recognizes the unfairness of treating post-2012 juvenile
felons differently than their predecessors.
“I think commonsense says that if you’re going to create a sentencing structure for those
(juvenile lifers) moving forward, it should apply to those who got life sentences in the past,”
Haveman told MLive’s Jonathan Oosting earlier this month. Haveman, who says he is “not by
any means recommending that we open the doors and let everyone out,” says he thinks as
many as a fifth of the juvenile lifers in Michigan might be able to make the case for leaving
prison before they die.Haveman, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, sponsored
legislation mandating parole hearings for every juvenile lifer, including those incarcerated
before 2012. But state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, a former sheriff who has made a
career of grandstanding on law-and-order issues, persuaded his Senate colleagues to exclude
current prisoners, and a version approved by the House would include them only if federal or
state Supreme Court justices insisted.
The Michigan Supreme Court could do just that when it takes up the cases of three currently
incarcerated juvenile lifers sometime in 2014. Justices have already agreed to hear arguments
by lawyers for Dakota Eliason, Raymond Carp and Cortez Davis. Eliason was convicted at the
age of 14 when he was charged in his grandfather’s murder; Carp and Davis were convicted of
participating in killings when they were 16.
Schuette has already given notice that he will oppose all three prisoners’ requests for a parole
hearing. He says it’s another opportunity to express his support for crime victims — but all he’s
really expressing is his contempt for the constitutional rights of a constituency that can’t vote.