Back in 2016, a man named Thom Goodfellow was released from the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield and found family within the congregation at the National Avenue Christian Church.
Goodfellow, who died in 2019, wasn’t a “typical” offender, according to his friend, Lynda Nickle.
Nickle also attends National Avenue Christian Church and is a former chief of mental health for the Missouri State Penitentiary and Department of Corrections.
“Thom, like me, had a master’s degree in social work,” Nickel said. “He came from a prominent family.”
Even so, Goodfellow — like many people who get out of prison — faced some big hurdles in getting his Social Security Disability application and payments lined out.
“And if he couldn’t get disentangled from all of the bureaucracy, what would it be like for someone who are like the vast majority of people coming out,” Nickle said.
Re-entry can be especially difficult for people coming out of Missouri’s Department of Corrections, which releases people without any form of identification or assistance in obtaining an ID, birth certificate, Social Security Card or driver's license.
And if a person doesn’t have any of these important documents, they can’t get a job or housing, Nickle said.
Another big issue, particularly for people coming out of the state prison, is they are only given a very small supply of their prescription medications.
“In the state of Missouri, we are woeful as far as offering support once a person walks out of the (prison) walls,” Nickle said.
For these reasons, Goodfellow and Nickle founded Hand Up, a program of the church’s Justice Collaborative initiative. Hand Up provides funds to help people getting out of prison but have no support. Typically the funds are used to pay for IDs and such, but sometimes it can be things like vehicle repairs or steel-toed boots for work.
Hand Up provides emergency funds
Hand Up does not work directly with the people needing help. Instead, caseworkers and staff from organizations like One Door and Victory who are already working with people recently released from prison can reach out to Hand Up and ask for funds.
Nickle, along with Ashley Quinn, the coordinator for National Avenue’s Justice Collaborative, and the church’s Pastor Jenn Simmons recently spoke to the Daily Citizen about the Hand Up program and shared their memories of Goodfellow.
Asked why it’s important to show compassion to those coming out of prisons, Simmons shared a quote from Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative: “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
“That is exactly spot on,” Simmons said. “We each deserve an opportunity to be able to flourish and create no matter what we’ve done.
“Thom taught me … how hard and difficult (reentry) is. No one should be alone. And about the importance of community,” she continued. “Each of us deserve opportunities to be heard and loved and cared for in the midst of really hard moments and trying to reenter.”
Quinn said he doesn’t really think of people coming out of incarceration as being any different than himself or others.
“Especially in a country that has the rates of incarceration that we do, there’s just too many people that you meet on the street or walk around with every day who have been incarcerated at some point in their lives,” he said, “because that is the nature of the way the U.S. deals with things.”
In his view, it’s ridiculous that Missouri’s prison system doesn’t already have the ID problem worked out.
“To me, I appreciate efficiency,” Quinn said. “The fact that people are released from a government facility where they definitely know what your name is, what your date of birth is, who you are, your identity — the fact you would be released from such an institution without documentation that you can carry to then show somebody else who you are is just mind-boggling to me.”
When Goodfellow died in 2019, his friend and fellow former inmate, John Cottle, sort of took Goodfellow’s place to serve alongside Nickle on Hand Up’s leadership team as someone with lived experience.
Cottle said he spent seven years in federal prison because of an “unfortunate run-in with law enforcement” — he tried to buy drugs from a confidential informant.
But as someone with strong support from family and friends, Cottle said he came out of prison with advantages that most don’t have.
“For me, my time in prison was more sad than anything else,” he said. “I would walk through the prison sometimes and look at the people around me, and most of them didn’t need to be there. They were there simply because the system and society had failed them 30 or 40 years ago.
“There are so many people out there that don’t need a lot,” Cottle said. “All they really need is to know there are other people who care about whether or not they succeed. And Hand Up can be that in a small way.”
Hand Up's fundraising event is Jan. 28
Cottle, along with Simmons, Quinn and Nickle, have been busy in recent weeks preparing for Hand Up’s chief fundraising event: the Fresh Start 5K and 10K races (open to both runners and walkers).
The races begin at 10 a.m. Jan. 28 at 2707 N. Farm Road 123 (the CNH Reman parking lot).
There will be porta-potties at the start and aid stations along the course on the Frisco Highline Trail, a flat paved trail located just northwest of Springfield.
Cottle is putting the finishing touches on some very special prizes: a couple of handmade leather bags and a painting. One of those bags he started making when he was in prison a few years ago. He said he set the bag aside and kind of forgot about finishing it.
“It seems appropriate,” he said of finishing the bag and giving it away as a prize at the upcoming event.
Awards will also go to the top finishers for non-binary, women and men.
Entry Fee:
Early bird by Jan 6: 5K $30; 10K $40
Jan 7-27: 5K $35; 10K $45
Race Day Registration: 5K $40; 10K $50
Learn more about Hand Up on the National Avenue Christian Church website, where you can also register for the Fresh Start 5K or 10K or to learn about sponsoring the event.
