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NEW TAZEWELL, Tenn. – Claiborne County’s new jail is as clean and modern as they come, but it’s still a jail.

Visitors are accompanied by a correctional officer at all times, and the doors are locked from a master control room. Windows are practically non-existent, and surveillance cameras are a constant presence throughout the building.

Every Tuesday afternoon, members of the Pump Springs Baptist Church in nearby Harrogate, Tenn., come here to minister to the inmates. Using a program called “Celebrate Recovery” – a 12-step approach based on Christian principles – the team delivers a message of hope and reconciliation.

Last week the ministry team brought into the prison a 60-gallon plastic laundry tub mounted on wheels. Twelve inmates had asked to be baptized that day. In keeping with Baptist belief, the ritual would be administered by full-body immersion.

Inmates in the jail live in separate, self-contained housing units known as pods. Each pod contains two tiers of cells arranged around a central gathering area. The male inmates live on the lower floor of the jail, and the women are housed upstairs.

Edwin Robertson, lay ministry coordinator for Pump Springs Baptist Church, said his church baptized 55 inmates last year.

“Some folks criticize it and call it jailhouse religion,” Robertson said. “But nobody knows what’s in a person’s heart. People here have the opportunity to make a change in life. They’re incarcerated day and night, with nothing to do but to be quiet enough to hear the Lord.”

The program is strictly voluntary. When the Celebrate Recovery team visits the jail each week, between 30 percent and 50 percent of the male inmates usually turn out to listen, while attendance among the women is about 90 percent.

The baptism team rolled the mobile laundry vat from pod to pod. The water was lukewarm, and church members stood ready with towels. Scott Cannon, pastor of Pump Springs Baptist Church, performed the baptisms, while Daniel Carmack, a Celebrate Recovery leader from London, Ky., sang for the inmates.

Of the 160 to 180 inmates typically housed in the Claiborne County Jail, 45 to 50 are women. Sheriff David Ray said close to 85 percent of the inmates are incarcerated for crimes related to drugs and alcohol.

“I don’t know of another jail where an outside ministry has taken on so much,” Ray said. “I see what it does for the inmates. It shows in their character, the way they present themselves.”

Pump Springs Baptist Church operates a halfway house for men in New Tazewell near the jail. The church also will soon open a rescue mission for women in Harrogate.

The Celebrate Recovery leaders who go into the county jail have used the 12-step program to recover from their own addictions. One of those leaders is Gil LaBroad, who spent 24 years as an alcoholic, drinking as much as a case of beer each day. LaBroad’s hands and arms are covered with tattoos – all of them Biblically related except for the ones on the back of his hands, which depict his two dogs. During last week’s visit to the jail, LaBroad wore a black T-shirt with the “Christian Motorcycle Association” emblem stenciled on the back.

“The inmates relate to motorcyclists, too,” LaBroad said.

Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.