Boulder – When Shanna Sanford’s grandfather was buried this year, she had to be pried off the casket.
“He’s all I had,” said Sanford, 26, of Longmont. “When I lost him, I feel like I lost everything.”
Sanford turned to drugs to numb her pain, broke the law and blamed God for her problems.
A few weeks ago, with tearful, bloodshot eyes, Sanford told her story to Janet McRoberts, a Bible study leader with Vinelife Community Church.
“I’m fighting something in my head,” she said.
And so were many others at that night’s meeting.
Sanford is one of more than 400 inmates at the Boulder County Jail and one of more than a dozen women who regularly attend faith groups offered throughout the week.
The programs serve nearly 1,000 inmates every year.
“This is my favorite verse,” Sanford said during a Wednesday group hosted by Rocky Mountain Christian Church.
Sanford followed along as another woman read from the Book of John.
The verse tells of a man crippled for 38 years who has been lying by a pool waiting to be healed. According to the story, Jesus asks if he wants to be well, and then tells him to get up.
“But getting well means he has to change,” said Glenda Buzbee, a volunteer Bible study leader. “I bet that after 38 years, he was pretty comfortable there.”
The women agreed it can be difficult to change destructive habits. But they said that’s what they want to do, and that the jail’s religious programs are a big reason why.
Although the chaplain services are among the jail’s most popular programs, the county didn’t begin paying chaplains as hourly employees until this year, when they realized most other jails in the state do so.
Chaplain Joe Herzanek, who has ministered to Boulder County inmates on a contract or volunteer basis since 1993, now makes $16 an hour.
“I am a recovering person myself,” Herzanek said. “But I became a Christian in 1980, and I felt the Lord was leading me to this type of work.”
Herzanek has seen the number of programs and the participation increase significantly.
When he started at the jail, its religious offerings were minimal, he said.
Now, 75 volunteers run more than 30 religious programs a month.
About 10 percent of the jail’s inmates attend the programs.
“This is a place with broken people who know they can’t fix their problems themselves,” Herzanek said.
