Pilgrims and Prisoners: When Justice and Mercy Meet - Paperback

by Ron Nikkel (Author), Andy Corley (Author), Dan W. Van Ness (Foreword by)

When justice is used as a synonym for judgment we miss the point of justice. The prisons of the world are bursting at the seams with offenders who have been judged guilty and are being punished for wrongdoing. Prisons are a failure. In fact, justice is not achieved through imprisonment. Ron and Andy have dedicated their lives to pursuing justice and mercy in response to criminal offenders. In many respects, prisons are the most spiritual places on earth. It is in prison where the great questions of humanity converge--questions of guilt and forgiveness, good and evil, retribution and redemption, hope and despair, life and death, guilt and forgiveness, judgment and mercy. Where is God in the midst of all of this? Is God even relevant, does God care? And if God cares, does that make any difference to the justice we seek? Ron has likely been in more prisons in more countries than any other person. He has been in the very best of prisons and the prisons that can only be described as "hellholes." In their journey through the prisons of the world, both Ron and Andy have encountered Jesus--God imprisoned with men and women in the margins of respectability and human dignity; God of all righteousness and justice, love, and mercy embracing offenders in the depths of their human condition.

Author Biography

Ron Nikkel has had a lifelong passion for justice. After working with marginalized youth in urban communities in his early career, he settled in Washington, DC where he served as president and CEO of Prison Fellowship International for more than thirty years. He led the development of Prison Fellowship International beyond its origins in the USA to encompass a global network of criminal justice ministries in more than 125 countries.



Andy Corley, formerly a business entrepreneur based in the UK, currently serves as the president and CEO of Prison Fellowship International. Ron continues as president emeritus.