Faith in New Jersey Hires Rev. Dr. Russell Owen To Lead Live Free New Jersey Statewide Work Against Mass Incarceration, Gun Violence & Criminalization

CAMDEN Faith in New Jersey’s newest staff member is Rev. Dr. Russell Owen, an experienced community organizer from South Jersey. Owen has a passion for developing leaders and partnering with people that have been harmed by the criminal legal system to address the economic concerns in their neighborhoods, transform the inhumane incarceration system and help advocate for policies that reduce daily shootings. He brings a unique experience as a formerly incarcerated person that allows him to fight for justice while centering grace, mercy and justice in his work.

“Faith in New Jersey has been a part of the Live Free USA network that has helped us drive issues around gun violence, mass incarceration, police violence, and mass criminalization in Black and Brown neighborhoods,” said Charlene Walker, Executive Director of Faith in New Jersey. It is an honor to bring on Dr. Owen to continue this work and shepherd a brighter vision for our statewide Live Free organizing. Dr. Owen has a history of serving the New Jersey community, providing healing to those that are hurting, fighting for justice and working with faith communities on transforming our inhumane justice system. It is important to bring the right person who has firsthand experience with the criminal legal system and will work tirelessly to transform lives through our Live Free work”

Born in Boston, MA and raised in South Jersey, Owen comes from a military family that instilled in him a strong work ethic and leadership values that he carries with him and instills in his own daughter.

At the age of 19, while on leave from the Army, was involved in a violent altercation that landed him in prison to serve out a 32-year sentence. His time being incarcerated gave him a new perspective on life and was a driving factor for him in becoming an organizer and helping transform the criminal justice system from the inside. While in prison, Owen received his first degree from Rutgers University as one of the founding partners of the NJ-STEP (Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons) program at Eastern Jersey State Prison (EJSP).

“Russell Owen was a light inside a place often shrouded in darkness,” said Margaret Atkins, Founder and Former Director of NJ-STEP who asked Owen to be one of a small group of students to sit on the Advisory Board at EJSP. “He taught all of us what it means to be a community. Russ worked tirelessly with his peers to ensure that every single student (over 150) was able to succeed and graduate. As a leader, he organized tutoring sessions and made himself available to walk alongside any student who was struggling.”

Rev. Dr. Toby Sanders, Pastor of Beloved Community Church & Director of Education of Newark Community Street Team worked with Owens in his capacity as Professor and Counselor to NJ-STEP students in EJSP.

“EJSP became one of the finest learning communities in the state because of what Russell and the cohort of students he helped lead there accomplished. His intelligence, organizational skills, and his off-the-charts emotional intelligence made him one of the most effective leaders with whom I have ever worked—in any context. But, more important than his work as a student and leader, his character is even more impressive than his talent.”

While pursuing his education, Owen heard his call to ministry to help God’s people who suffer. His passion pushed him to accept the path to becoming a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ where he became the first incarcerated person at EJSP to become a licensed and ordained reverend, despite the Department of Corrections being hesitant to allow it.

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Akins, Supervisor of Chaplaincy Services at EJSP, first met Owen while interning at the prison 16 years ago. Owen was already serving as one of the resident pastors at the church there.

“After serving with him for so many years and to see his spiritual integrity, his maturity; there was no doubt in my mind that the Lord was leading him to ordination. So despite all of the frowning upon, we did ordain him and he was the first one at East Jersey.”

Owen wishes to use his extensive education, deep call to ministry and long-standing organizing experience to build power with fellow returning citizens to change the systems and pipelines that fuel our incarceration system. He is passionate about closing for-profit prisons, abolishing the 13th amendment, ending parole disparities and reducing recidivism by creating better communities for people returning home.

“It is an honor to serve the citizens of New Jersey, which has such a rich history, but has also certainly faced numerous challenges; especially in our Black and Brown communities,” said Owen. “I am calling out to those who do not know what it means to live free because of the systemic oppression that uses us to feed its prisons and fills our streets with police and gun violence. What does it mean to be free? Even now, as a returning citizen, that question weighs heavy on me, but what I know for sure is that we all deserve dignity and the right to live powerful lives. I ask whosoever will, join me on this redemptive journey to come together to make the change we need for a better future: a Live Free future.”