ALABASTER – State Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, has been named Alabama’s state leader for a major nationwide criminal justice reform program.

On May 25, Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest outreach program to prisoners and their families, announced the launch of the Faith and Justice Fellowship, a bi-partisan coalition of state and federal lawmakers following multiple faith traditions to pursue major changes in criminal justice reform.

The same day, Ward was named state leader for the Fellowship’s campaign in Alabama.

“Any efforts aimed at helping the victims of crimes and rehabilitation of offenders must include a faith-based component,” Ward said. “While criminal justice reform must always keep public safety first, we cannot ignore the need for proper rehabilitation in the prison system.”

“I am proud to join this distinguished group of state and national lawmakers in kicking off this nationwide fellowship to promote best practices in our corrections system. Though Chuck Colson is no longer with us, his organization continues on today, making even greater strides with the announcement of the Faith and Justice Fellowship,” Ward added.

According to Prison Fellowship, the mission of the Faith and Justice Fellowship is “to build, inform and inspire a movement of policymakers and voters who believe that human dignity and redemption should be represented in our national dialogue on criminal justice.”

In addition to Ward, state leaders include: State Sen. Konni Burton of Texas, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley of Michigan, State Rep. Rob Hutton of Wisconsin, State Rep. Matt Krause of Texas, State Delegate Dave LaRock of Virginia and State Sen. John Proos of Michigan.

The founding federal leaders of the Faith and Justice Fellowship are U.S. Sen. Richard Burr from North Carolina, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn from Texas, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis from Illinois, U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren from Illinois, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee from Utah and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina.