In September 2016, The Board of Directors of Family ReEntry appointed Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, as interim Executive Director of Family ReEntry, Inc., Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Jeff served on Family ReEntry’s board of directors since 2009 — his new appointment marks the first time in the United States that a person formerly incarcerated for a white-collar crime has served as the head of a major re-entry agency. “It’s a tremendous step, and a bold decision on the Board’s part,” Grant said. “This is a transformative period for Family ReEntry. I owe them my fresh start, so of course I said yes when they offered me the position.”
After serving almost fourteen months in a Federal prison for a white-collar crime, Jeff was awarded a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, with a focus in Christian Social Ethics.
Jeff is also the Director of the Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse and Children Project, Greenwich, Connecticut, the first ministry in the United States created to provide confidential support and counseling to individuals, families and organizations with white-collar and other nonviolent incarceration issues.
He has served on a number of Boards of Directors serving the criminal justice community, including Family ReEntry, Bridgeport, New Haven & Norwalk, CT; Community Partners in Action (formerly the Connecticut Prison Association), Greater Hartford, CT; Healing Communities Network, New York, NY; the Editorial Board of the book, The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration has Hijacked the American Dream, Southport, CT; and the Advisory Boards of Reentry Survivors, Bridgeport, CT & Creative Projects Group, Los Angeles, CA (Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet.”).
Jeff was the recipient of the 2012 Elizabeth Bush Award for Volunteerism, the Bridgeport Reentry Collaborative Advocate of the Year Award ’13, ’14 & ’15, and the Bridgeport Reentry Collaborative Professional of the Year Award ’16. JustLeadershipUSA recognized Jeff as one of fifteen Leaders in Criminal Justice at its benefit in NYC; the event was chaired by Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black.
He has been the subject of articles in national and regional media including Forbes, Inc., The Huffington Post, Absolute Return/HedgeFund Intelligence, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Fairfield County Business Journal, Reentry Central, Weston Magazine Group, Weston Forum, Greenwich Sentinel, Greenwich Time, The Hour and others.
As an advocate for prison reform and criminal justice social ethics issues, Jeff is a requested speaker for charitable, religious, educational and public action groups. Notable speaking engagements include: Main-Stage Presenter at The Nantucket Project ; interview at the prestigious Greenwich Leadership Forum by host David Miller, Director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative; workshop presenter at the Corrections Ministries and Chaplains Association (CMCA) Correctional Ministry Summit, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, IL; featured speaker at the Salons at Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, CT ; panelist at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; panelist at Yale Divinity School; and various sermons and speaking engagements throughout the Northeast.
Jeff is also the editor of the important and widely read blogsite, prisonist.org, at which he authors, edits and curates content around national and international criminal justice advocacy/ministry themes, including exclusive articles and guest blogs written by some of the world’s foremost experts in their fields.
