“This is who I was before I met Jesus Christ, and now, I’m dead and I’m buried. My old self is gone, and I’m resurrected new. And I’m somebody totally different in Jesus.”

The Blount County Sheriff’s Office continues to offer prisoners voluntary baptisms to assist them in transforming their life and turning it around. Recently they saw a band of women prisoners registered for the first baptism.

Through a partnership with Redeemed Ministries, the prison saw 24 males be baptized and decided to offer the same opportunity to the ladies.

Sheriff Mark Moon explains the thought behind this initiative: “This is who I was before I met Jesus Christ, and now, I’m dead and I’m buried. My old self is gone, and I’m resurrected new. And I’m somebody totally different in Jesus.”

No government funding is provided to Redeemed Ministries for the program, which is entirely voluntary for prisoners to attend. In the end, Moon said that he intends this to help put an end to the “rotating gate” of the same individuals cyclically coming in and out of county jail.

Moon, who is also a Pastor, said this: “If we can help them change their motives by changing their heart, getting their life right, getting their families back together — if we can get families back together then we can really make a difference in communities,” the sheriff outlined. “And with the epidemic that’s going on in our country with opioid abuse, drug abuse, I believe that if you change people’s hearts, you change their motivations, you change their desires, then you can start seeing them get their families back together — and they can become positive contributors to society instead of just continually being in and out of jail.”

“I truly want people to make a difference and to make good choices,” he also said. “I don’t want people in my jail.”