Helping find hope: Tim Smith prepares inmates for release

A note from his son changed his life.

“Growing up in Decatur, Illinois, we were poor and the family was just enough dysfunctional that I spent a lot of time out of the house and ran the streets with friends. I could have been the dude doing life. I had my own share of foolishness as a young man," said Tim Smith.

“I loved to escape by reading military history and drawing architectural plans. So the military and being an architect were a couple (of) things I thought about doing. Or music. I was a jazz/rock trumpet player.”

Instead, in high school, Smith felt a call to Christian ministry and preached at a men’s halfway house when he was just 16.

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Smith went on to seminary at Princeton, then considered becoming a military or hospital chaplain. Instead, to be relatively close to his wife’s Cleveland home, he became a prison chaplain at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in 1997.

Then a tough reality caught up with him.

“I found a note one of my sons had written when he was maybe 7 or 8 years old,” he said.

“It said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be an inmate so I can see my daddy more.’ That slayed me. I knew I needed to slow down the pace for the sake of my family.

"This is why I walked away from the state prison work after 21 years. I knew I wouldn't get the full pension and would lose the benefit package, but I needed a change. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Men especially need to avoid becoming that ‘company guy’ that goes all in with the career path and gets the life sucked out of him.”

Smith subsequently joined Kindway in 2024 . He’s the men’s transition manager of the Kindway EMBARK program at Madison Correctional Institution in London.

“I prepare men to find healing through Christ before they’re released,” he said. “The EMBARK model requires a year of prerelease programming and then provides up to a year of housing and employment assistance upon their release."

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Smith said he enjoys the work because he gets to help inmates find the courage and hope to face the thing everyone fears — taking life head-on despite the horror and pain of getting real about ourselves and the world.

“Reality is in many ways the thing we invest so much into avoiding,” he said.

“It’s painful. We don’t want to see the light because we think we can’t stand the heat. So, my approach with those who have a lot of life pain and unresolved trauma is to build a bridge of friendship. We all need friends who care enough to hold us accountable. Getting the timing right to know when you can lovingly drop the hammer — that’s what I try to get right.”

Drew Bracken grew up in Upper Arlington, was a TV news anchor for years and is a longtime freelance writer for Gannett newspapers. If you have a suggestion for a future inspirational profile, email Emily Rohozen, entertainment and things-to-do editor, at erohozen@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Helping find hope: Tim Smith prepares inmates for release