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HENDERSONVILLE — Tropical Storm Helene forced more than 2,100 men and women who are incarcerated in western North Carolina to be moved to institutions in the center and eastern regions of the state because their facilities lost electricity and water. As a result, people involved with prison ministry in the Diocese of Charlotte are working to continue outreach to them in the wake of the storm.

Inmates were moved from Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine, Craggy Correctional Center in Asheville, Mountain View Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine, the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women and the Western Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa.

Many of the men served by the diocesan prison ministry have been moved to Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, according to David Coe, temporary coordinator of prison ministry and council chair of the Residents Encounter Christ program in the diocese, a Catholic-based program designed to bring hope and the knowledge of Christ to inmates.

Coe said prison ministry volunteers were in the middle of preparations for a retreat at Mount View when Helene hit, and they learned the prison had been evacuated.

“The inmates have been distributed throughout the state, and we understand most of them will stay at their present locations until their respective institutions are back up and running,” Coe said. “As a result, we’re trying to locate as many of the people we’ve been working with as possible. It will be difficult at best to find all of them simply because of the extent of the damage both the institutions and our team members have experienced, especially in the Spruce Pine area.”

One group of inmates studying the faith at Craggy Correctional recently had been introduced to the liturgy, reconciliation and the Eucharist through the leadership of Father Patrick Cahill at St. Eugene Church in Asheville. Coe is trying to reach out to the Residents Encounter Christ program at Alexander Correctional to contact those inmates and others from western North Carolina.
Coe also has been going to Craggy every Wednesday to lead a Christ-centered 12-step program and wants to continue that outreach to help the men through their recovery.

“We want to see if the chaplain at Alexander can re-organize that group of about 26 men so they can continue their efforts to be set free from drug and alcohol addiction,” he said. “They’re wonderful men who are sincere about being set free.”

Coe said it is a blessing that the core volunteer group in the prison ministry program came through the storm safely.

Family members who are trying to get in touch with loved ones who have been moved can search contact information through the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.

— Christina Lee Knauss

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