Regular ten-minute Bible studies are being conducted with a group of local prison inmates when they come out to clean the streets. One of them came to the defense of a Witness when a woman passing by started to abuse her. He ran up to the sister, took the Live Forever book from her hands, held it up, and asked the abusive woman: “Can’t you read? What’s written here? You can live forever in Paradise on earth! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Why in the world are you insulting God and his worshipers?”

Hardened Convicts Changed

To the east of Środa Śląska is Strzelce Opolskie, where there are two prisons. One is a high-security prison for incorrigible offenders. The Witnesses regularly visit these two penal institutions to bring the truth to the prisoners, many of whom were also captives of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion.​—Revelation 18:1-5.

The Witnesses study the Bible with individual inmates and small groups of prisoners, some of whom have been baptized. Although they must serve their sentences, they are actively preaching the good news to other inmates. One prisoner preparing for baptism made such remarkable changes that the prison authorities allowed him to go home once a week. Others have written to their families expressing their determination to leave prison, not as criminals, but as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The chief officer of one of the prisons complained that Catholic priests used to come but accomplished nothing. He asked the Witnesses: “What enables you to change and rehabilitate these people?” A letter from a prisoner to his family answers: “Here in prison, Jehovah’s Witnesses have told me about God’s wonderful promise concerning the new government, Jehovah’s Kingdom, that is soon to rule over the earth. Here I have had time to analyze my previous way of life in the light of the Bible. Having drawn bitter conclusions, I have been seized with the desire to become a free man and to find myself a subject of God’s Kingdom. Today I am a baptized Witness of Jehovah.”

In the other prison, many are serving 25-year terms for murder. A regular Bible study is being conducted with 12 men. One of them dedicated his life to Jehovah and was baptized, and others are planning to take these steps. Appreciating the good results of the educational methods used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the chief prison officer said: “I don’t have 12 convicts. I have 600. Please help me rehabilitate them. I will supply you with everything you need, but please prepare the program. Take care of them!”

That was exactly what the brothers did. They presented a Bible program dealing with the purpose of life, the hope for the future, and the importance of giving up wrong practices. They also related experiences of a former prisoner who became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and in time was appointed a congregation elder. The Witnesses also gave highlights from the life stories of a diamond thief and a drug abuser who have learned the truth.a The 20 prisoners present found the program most interesting and asked many questions, some even requesting Bible studies.