Chaplain at Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre (CDTCC)
“When you take the drug ICE, you’ll see something so unbelievable that you’re always going to chase that high again”
I hear comments like this all the time from inmates with long-term drug addictions. One man put it this way:
“When I used heroin, I was addicted and needed more just to survive and feel normal. But when I used ICE, I was addicted because I liked it, I wanted more of it.”
As someone who’s never used drugs, there’s only so much I can truly grasp about what these men go through. But last month, I invited a special guest to share with the inmates at our centre – Zane, a former inmate and now a final-year student at Christ College.
By God’s grace, every man at the prison had the chance to hear his testimony over Easter.
Zane’s story is a powerful reminder of what the gospel can do. He went from a life defined by drugs and crime to becoming a new creation in Christ. And it all began when God softened his heart while he was reading the Bible alone in the segregation unit (solitary confinement), after an attempted escape from custody.
Last week, one inmate came up to me and said he was still thinking about Zane’s story. He said:
“That story shows that knowing Jesus must be better than drugs.”
Another said:
“I get why Zane is all in for Jesus, he’s seen something better.”
These men are beginning to grasp what the Psalmist says in Psalm 63:3:
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
Most of the inmates I meet have ended up in prison because they were chasing something they thought was “life” but it wasn’t. Some turned to drugs and crime because life just felt too painful or empty. But the gospel shows us something greater: the love of Christ is better than anything this life can offer.
Please pray that the men at the centre will keep reflecting on the power of God’s love—and that their hearts would be softened to respond in repentance and praise.
Watch Zane’s testimony here:
Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'
