An area of great need in any area of the country and certainly no less in North Georgia is the ministry to men in prison. There are already several fine prison ministries in our geophysical area of our Conference, and they have good coverage between them of the prisons there. What is not covered nearly as well is the area of prison aftercare. The data show that men, even men who receive significant spiritual training in prison, when they get out, are much more likely to return to prison if they cannot find a strong and consistent program of aftercare. The AA organizations serve this function for alcoholics. The NA organizations serve this function for drug abusers. There is no comparable parachurch organization for aftercare for former inmates in North Georgia, although there are a few independent ministries which provide temporary housing and spiritual training and job training for a year or so, there are not many of these, and, due to the cost, the few that are there cannot provide for very many men. The general goal of this ministry area is to significantly improve that situation within our Conference. At present, the United Methodist North GA Conference has no program performing these services. We intend to be that program. The Church of God in North GA does have a well-organized prison ministry, but not an aftercare ministry. We could join them, sharing information, etc. and bring the power of a true ecumenical effort to bear on the problem. The percentage of men who return to prison after their first term in prison is called the rate of recidivism. A measure of success for our program could be the difference between recidivism for individuals which, we, working with other organizations in North Georgia, are able to help and those we are not able to reach due to lack of resources. Goals for this type measure could be shown as follows.