"Hey, Convict!"

"When I did run into a guard the exchange was always the same ... "

Snippets from Russell L. Ford's A Prison Evangelist's Swan Song: How I Became a Catechist behind Bars.

In Catholic Answers Magazine. January - February 2012 issue.

Having picked the right office lock, Russell is "smuggling" Catholic contraband.

He's shuffling along the prison corridors, juggling the VCR , television, cables and Fr. Fox's Sharing the Faith tapes to share with his fellow prisoners at Draper Prison in Alabama, where -- a quarter of a century later! -- he's in the final year of a 25 - year sentence -- no parole for him!

SCENE: Comes a guard!

"When I did run into a guard the exchange was always the same:

"Hey convict, where are you going with that stuff?

"You ain't supposed to have that!"

"Hey, Boss, all I know is, I'm supposed to take this stuff to classroom three."

"You ain't supposed to have that stuff, convict.

"Take it back where you got it!"

"Hey, Boss, that's fine with me.

"I don't want to do this anyway."

"Hmm. Hold up, convict! Go ahead and take it where you're supposed to take it."

Russell's Teaching Point:

"Nothing I said here was a lie, but there were two psychological elements that worked every time.

"I told the guard I did not want to do what I was doing, which was true.

"Guards love to make us do what we don't want to do, so that was the first psychological factor.

"Since I did not give him any lip when he told me to put things up, he always assumed someone outranking him told me to get the equipment and my agreeable obedience was a setup to get him into trouble, which was the second psychological element.

"Our classes and our group grew from there.

"The guards got so used to us with videos and hardware to show them that such items ceased to be contraband.

"And our members truly blossomed.

"In fact, things began to move so fast that Fr. Killian told me, You catechize 'em, I'll baptize 'em.

"That is how we began the apostolate a quarter of a century ago..."

Way to go, señor! Keep up this terrific work! :)