The lost sheep
I met a man in jail the other day named George. He told me he grew up in the area and I talked about him once many years ago on the TV news. Back then he was a bank robber. I met this man behind bars but he wasn’t an inmate. He was part of a team of former inmates who go to the Albany County jail every Sunday evening to find the lost sheep. There’s a surprise about George involving Yale University but I’ll get to that in a moment; first i have to talk about another man named Marty.
Once in a while you meet remarkable people in this job and one of them is Pastor Marty Stanton. I met Marty after a brief conversation with the Sheriff Craig Apple last fall. I was catching up with Apple, I’ve known him since we were both not much more than kids, and asked him if there were any remarkable stories happening at the jail? That’s when he mentioned Marty.
Marty Stanton is a living example of the sheep who got away. For those of you who haven’t been to Sunday School in a while Jesus tells the story of the shepherd with 100 sheep. He says if even one of them got lost wouldn’t you leave the 99 to go save the one? That’s Marty.
Twenty five years ago Marty was one of the biggest drug dealers in upstate New York. Or as he tells it, “I was moving a half a kilo of coke a week and two hundred pounds of pot. If someone smoked marijuana in 1990’s odds are I sold it to you.” Like almost all criminals Marty was caught and convicted and sent away for a long prison stretch. It was that time behind bars that led him into a chapel where he found his faith.
Jump ahead to 2018 and Marty is now a pastor with the Victory Christian Church in Rotterdam and every single week, without fail, he gives up his freedom and goes back to the place no former convict ever wants to go; jail. He takes a team of former inmates with him and they worship and talk to the current occupants of the jail.
I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of the program as described by the sheriff several months ago. I thought, “I could see inmates wanting to get out of their cells for an hour and going to listen to church music but I wonder how many are serious about this faith business and are truly changing?” Then I went to jail and saw it for myself. Some of the hardest men and women from our area who have clearly made mistakes and lost their way, raising their hands and voices in prayer.
I talked to one current inmate name Ciorus and asked him why he came? The handsome well-spoken man with perfect teeth in the bright orange prison jumpsuit said in a hushed tone, “It opens my eyes to a lot of new things and I’m telling you once I get out of here I’m going to get back to church.” I could tell he meant it.
While the singing and praying was important to the process I could tell it was the quieter moments when the former inmates spoke one-on- one with the current residents of the jail that a connection was being made. As one of the pastors and former inmates told me, “I tell them I get it because I was exactly where you are now. And trust me the situation you are in is also the way out.” It sounded more like a line from The Matrix than the Gospel of Luke but it seemed to take root in the young men listening.
One of the former inmates who goes back to jail ever Sunday is George Chochos. He robbed nearly a half dozen banks in our area 18 years ago but found his faith and purpose in prison. He enrolled in an education program and eventually got out of pja and attended Yale. Yes THAT Yale. He has his masters degree and is working on a PhD as I write this. He told me he has two newspaper articles he saved. The one from a local paper with the headline “Bank Robber Caught” and another from years later that says “From Jail To Yale” telling his improbable story.
I asked the sheriff why this program works and he said the answer is found in Pastor Marty. Sheriff Apple said, “I get approached by lots of faith based organizations and I’ll tell you Marty is the real deal. These inmates lose a lot of dignity when they come to a place like this but Marty shows them the way out. Pastor Marty shows them there is a life after this and he’s living proof.”
I did a story on Marty, George and the rest of these exceptional gentleman that will be on TV tomorrow night. I just wanted to tell you about it first. Not every lost sheep needs to stay lost. Many just need a little light to guide them to a better path. Marty Stanton is that light.
John Gray is a news anchor on WXXA-Fox TV 23 and ABC’S WTEN News Channel 10. His column is published every Wednesday. Email him at johngray@fox23news.com.