It would seem a man who’s been arrested 29 times and served ten stints in prison wouldn’t have much hope to turn his life around.
That’s not what Rego Cruse thinks.
Cruse spent 40 years of his life in and out of jail, but last year, he finally turned the corner. On May 1, 2023, he stepped out of jail for the last time, he says, and he’s now working a good job with good pay at Adaptec Solutions, where he services and inspects conveyer belts.
He said his turnaround is attributed to Steve Raleigh, who through his New Genesis Jail Ministry stayed the course with Cruse for many of the 40 years he was a recidivist offender.
Cruse, 57, said he met Raleigh 25 or so years ago and he “always remained in my corner.”
“He never gave up (on me),” Cruse said. “He is so sincere.”
Raleigh said, “I believed in him when others gave up.”
And now that he’s out and living a good life, Cruse said living the straight life “is not as hard as I thought it would be.”
“The more I prosper, the more I want to prosper,” he said.
Cruse was one of three former inmates who spoke Thursday evening at the inaugural banquet for New Genesis Jail Ministry held at Zion Baptist Church.
For more than 20 years, the Henderson County Detention Center contracted with another ministry, Good News Jail & Prison Ministry, to assist those still in the jail who wanted to turn their lives around. In 2007, Raleigh started New Genesis to assist inmates as they are released from jail because he knew those crucial first days out often determined if they would return.
Recently local leaders in both groups, including Chaplain Kenny Noblett who has headed Good News for years, decided to merge the two because much of the money raised here was going to the national headquarters of Good News in Virginia. They wanted to keep local contributions here so that the money can help Henderson County inmates.
On Oct. 1, the merge occurred, and now it’s called New Genesis, and the emphasis is on both helping inmates still in jail and those just released, Raleigh said.
Raleigh started off the evening with the statistic that every year in the United States, 600,000 people are released from jail. Of those, 400,000 return to jail within three years of their release, he said.
It was this staggering number he had in mind years ago as he watched a man being released at 12:01 a.m. with nothing but a plastic bag holding his belongings slung over his shoulder. He decided then that he was going to do “something about it in our little corner of the world.”
Another former inmate who spoke Thursday was Jeremy Lefler, who said he was ridiculed in prison for taking part in the Life Change Program offered by Good News (now New Genesis).
“I didn’t care. I’m going home,” he said.
He said he and Noblett needed one another when the chaplain just started in his position—Lefler because he needed to change his life, Noblett because he needed to be able to understand the manipulative mindset of many prisoners.
“I’m not perfect today,” Lefler said. “I try really hard to be better than who I was before.”
Lefler has been out of jail for 14 months, works at Berry Plastics and has bought his first home, he said.
Tina Walters credited her sponsor, Lynnell Russell, for giving her courage to continue. Walters said she had abused drugs and alcohol for years, but now is 17 months clean. She drives a nice car, meets her sponsor weekly and has a job, she said.
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Correction: This update includes a correction. In a previous version, it was written that 600,000 people go to jail each year. In fact, 600,000 people are released from jail each year, according to Steve Raleigh, counselor and founder of New Genesis. The number who go to jail is much, much higher, he said.