Ministry That Lasts
Churches that build reentry ministry into how they operate.
Religion and criminal justice · Speaking · Consulting
Scholars write about it. Activists organize around it. I've lived it.
I'm Harold Dean Trulear, PhD, a Howard University professor, an ordained Baptist minister, and a man who's done the time himself. I help denominations, seminaries, and corrections agencies build faith partnerships that outlast a Sunday, a grant cycle, or an election.
3
books, 100+ publications
2,000
congregations trained
2003
Howard University faculty since
What's at stake
Faith communities, mobilized for justice. Not just charity.
Leaders Who Train
Seminaries and chaplains equipped to train the people on the front lines.
Home For Good
People coming home who stay home, with the community and the mindset to make it.
Start here
Not sure where to start? Tell me who you are.
Pick who you are and I'll show you where this usually breaks down, and what becomes possible.
My story, and the case for the church's role in justice reform
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What it looks like to bring me in
Invitation
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What changes for your organization
For denominations, agencies, chaplains
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One foot in the academy, one foot in the street
The line he's known for
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Addiction is a disease, not a sin or a crime
The pulpit and the parole office
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Beyond prison ministry, into justice reform
From charity to organizing
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The case for corrections agencies
Public safety and the numbers
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After Sing Sing
What the classroom taught me about people
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Teaching inside Sing Sing
New York Theological Seminary
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What Lean on Me got right, and what it left out
A gospel choir and a school that prayed
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The 19th Street Baptist story
The student who came back
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People who look together are falling apart
The quiet heart of the day
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Why people find me after I speak
Safe space in the house of God
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You, the storyteller
Why stories carry values
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The Sojourners partnership
What changed for the churches
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The Ursinus College lectureship
What students walked away able to do
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Why Healing Communities came before Howard
Relationships before release
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When grant money ran out
Small churches, and where you get a hug
Who I serve
What becomes possible
The leaders who book, fund, and run faith and justice programs.
Five kinds of organizations bring me in. Here is what each one is up against, and where I come in.
Denominational and judicatory leaders
25 to 30
more congregations actively running reentry ministries by next year's assembly
Your congregations stop treating this as a one-time offering and build it into how they operate.
Moving from charity to real organizing. Not a prison ministry Sunday that comes and goes, but something your people own, that's still running the year after I'm gone.
Where this usually breaks down+
Your congregation already has families dealing with this. You just don't know who, because nobody talks about it. The one time you did something about it, an offering, a guest speaker, a prison ministry Sunday, it came and went.
Seminaries and Christian colleges
12 to 18 months
to a prison education pilot that's live and enrolling
A program funded by Pell-eligible enrollment, not pulled from your general budget.
I was dean of the first seminary program in the country to grant degrees inside a prison. The question isn't whether this costs you more. It's whether it generates revenue, and it can.
Where this usually breaks down+
You've heard pitches for new programs before, and they all assume you've got money lying around to spend. You don't. The real question is whether this generates revenue or just costs you more.
State and federal corrections agencies
60% down to
single digits
single digits
the recidivism rate for people who go through college programs in prison
A faith partnership that holds up against your public safety and recidivism goals, and outlasts the next administration.
What actually changes whether someone reoffends isn't punishment, and it isn't a sermon. A reentry strategy grounded in real recidivism data, defensible to your leadership, and built on faith communities, one of the most effective, lowest-cost partners you have.
Where this usually breaks down+
You've worked with faith partners before, and when the administration changed, the contract went with it. You need something that outlasts an election, not something that depends on one.
Conference and convening organizers
The session people are still bringing up next year
Not just a slot that got filled.
Keynotes, lectureships, and ministers' conference sessions, from a single talk to a multi-day lectureship, so your audience leaves ready to act, not just to listen.
Where this usually breaks down+
You've booked speakers who were fine. Polished, professional, forgettable. You want the session people are still bringing up next year.
Chaplains and correctional ministry networks
Volunteers who pass screening and stick around
Members who know how to recruit and prepare volunteers who actually pass screening and stick around.
I train your people to cultivate congregations as real partners, so your reentry and religious services work doesn't depend on one relationship. It becomes something your network can run on its own.
Where this usually breaks down+
You've brought in outside trainers who meant well and had no idea what a facility actually requires. Your members paid for that mistake, not the trainer.
There are scholars who write about criminal justice reform. There are activists who organize around it. I've done both, and I've also lived it.
I don't change what I believe. I change how I say it. With church and denominational audiences I lead with mobilization and stay in the moral register. With government and institutional audiences I lead with public safety and the numbers.
One foot in the academy, one foot in the street
There's nobody else with a foot in both.
My authority didn't come from a classroom alone. It came from three places.
→Ten years in Paterson, New Jersey, working with court-adjudicated youth starting in 1977, including at Eastside High School, the school later depicted in the movie Lean on Me. I didn't grow up poor, and I didn't grow up in that neighborhood. I moved into it, and it gave me an education.
→Seven years teaching inside Sing Sing as dean of New York Theological Seminary, in the first seminary program in the country to grant degrees inside a prison.
→And my own arrest, addiction, and time served in a Pennsylvania jail.
"
A Black Baptist minister with a PhD in sociology, a criminal record in recovery, and you're sane. There's nobody else like you on the planet.
What a peer told me at the Hampton University Ministers' Conference, 2013
Here's how I got here.
I teach Applied Theology at Howard University, direct the Black Congregations Resource Center there, and lead Healing Communities USA, a ministry that has trained close to 2,000 congregations over the past 20 years to walk with people and families touched by incarceration.
I also spent time in a Pennsylvania jail myself. In my thirties, my drinking got out of hand. I was arrested more than once. I went from working with people in the criminal justice system to being one of them.
That's why I don't just write about faith and criminal justice. I stand in both rooms. With the denomination trying to figure out how to talk about a member's incarcerated son. With the seminary trying to build a program inside a prison. With the agency trying to understand why recidivism keeps climbing. And with the family that hasn't told anyone in their pew what's really going on at home.
"I know what it's like to be struggling with an addiction, I know what it's like to be behind bars. I know what the church did for me, and I want to help the church do for others what it did for me."
Ways to bring me in
Speaking, training, and advisory
From a single keynote to a year-long retainer. The goal is the same each time: something your people can actually run after I'm gone.
01 · Speaking and keynotes
So your audience leaves ready to act, not just to listen.
Denominational conferences, ministers' conferences, campus and seminary lectures, chaplains' trainings, from a single keynote to a multi-day lectureship.
02 · Training and courses
So your group moves from awareness to a working ministry.
One-day congregational workshops and multi-week cohort courses built around the Healing Communities model, for congregations, denominational cohorts, or chaplains' associations.
03 · Ongoing advisory · Where most of my work happens now
Consistent access to this expertise, not a one-time answer that goes stale.
An annual relationship for denominations, foundations, and judicatory bodies.
04 · Government and institutional consulting
A reentry strategy grounded in the data and the faith community's real reach.
Custom-scoped work with state departments of corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and seminaries or Christian colleges.
Recognition
Recognized by the institutions I've worked alongside
→Named one of the "14 Faith Leaders to Watch" by the Center for American Progress
→Faith-based reentry contracts with State Departments of Corrections in Georgia, Michigan, and Maryland, and consulting work with the Federal Bureau of Prisons
→I've lectured at the Hampton University Ministers' Conference, the largest gathering of Black clergy in the country
→I direct the Black Congregations Resource Center, which manages several projects to advance preaching, social justice, and congregational care
→Invited back to preach and teach at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting every year since 2012
→I've written 3 books and over 100 articles, book chapters, and published sermons
→Visiting Professor of Judeo-Christian Values, Ursinus College, endowed lectureship
→I founded and lead Healing Communities USA, training nearly 2,000 congregations over 20 years
Questions
Questions people ask before they bring me in
We've done prison ministry before. How is this different?+
Prison ministry is usually charity: an offering, a guest speaker, a Sunday set aside once a year. That's a good place to start, and it's not where it ends. What I build with you is organizing. Your congregations learn to walk with people and families touched by the system as part of who they are, not as a program that comes and goes.
Do you work with government agencies, or only with churches?+
Both. I've held faith-based reentry contracts with state departments of corrections in Georgia, Michigan, and Maryland, consulted with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and made this case directly to decision makers on Capitol Hill. With agencies I lead with public safety and the numbers, and I build partnerships designed to outlast an administration change.
Can you do a single keynote, or do you only take longer engagements?+
Either. I speak at denominational conferences, ministers' conferences, seminaries, and chaplains' trainings, from a single keynote to a multi-day lectureship. Most of my work now happens in ongoing advisory relationships, because that's where things actually get built. We'll figure out which one fits what you need.
Do you talk about your own arrest and recovery when you speak?+
Yes, plainly. I went from working with people in the criminal justice system to being one of them, and I'm in recovery. That's not a footnote. It's the reason I can talk to people in the pulpit, the parole office, and the cell block in their own language. If your audience needs me to keep it brief, tell me and I will.
What does it cost to bring you in?+
My work ranges from a one-day congregational workshop, which starts at $2,500, to advisory relationships and multi-day lectureships at $20,000 and up. The right fit depends on your event, your audience, and your goals. Tell me what you're planning, including the date and your budget range, and we'll talk through options that work.
Where are you based, and do you travel?+
I'm based in the Washington, DC area, in Prince George's County, Maryland, and I'm glad to travel for this work. Tell me your date and location, and I'll let you know what's possible.
How do we get started?+
Email me (the address is in the footer) with a line or two about your organization and what you're trying to do. We'll start with a conversation, not a proposal. I know institutions move slower than individuals, and that's fine. This isn't a decision to rush.
Next steps
Three ways to begin.
I know institutions move slower than individuals, and that's fine. This isn't a decision to rush. Start with the door that matches you.
For denominations and judicatories
Move your congregations from charity to organizing.
A keynote, a multi-week course, or an annual advisory relationship. We'll figure out which on the call.
Now booking 2027 keynotes
Book a 30-minute conversation →
For corrections agencies and government
Build a faith partnership that holds up against your numbers.
Custom-scoped consulting with state departments of corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Procurement-aware, built to outlast an administration.
Start a scoping conversation →For conference and convening organizers
The session people are still bringing up next year.
Keynotes, lectureships, and ministers' conference sessions. Tell me about your audience and your dates.
Book a conversation about your event →Prefer email? hdtrulear at msn.com