Inmates Unload and Lock in on Kids

The Denver Post

The convicts come from Camp George West on Tuesday night. There are six, all men in their 30s. They wear prison greens, with white T-shirts underneath. A few have tattoos running up their arms. One is in for armed robbery, and he looks like an accountant. A couple are bald and huge, men you imagine manning the door at some nightclub; men who don't even have to blink to get a message across.

One of these big guys will say later that he caught a druggie breaking into his house, a matter with which he dealt by beating up the intruder, dragging him into the kitchen, binding him with duct tape, cutting his face and then taking photos. The would-be burglar was searching for the big guy's meth.

The six and their case manager arrive at the All Nations Ministries building in time for spaghetti and meatballs.

All Nations houses English, Spanish and Vietnamese congregations, as well as a nonprofit called Crossroads of the Rockies.

The church building is just around the corner from an Indonesian congregation of Seventh-day Adventists and down the street from a Vietnamese market popular among Laotians, Filipinos, Mexicans and the occasional Russian. It does brisk business in pork bellies and live tilapia that swim in a tank near a plastic tub full of dying crayfish.

So it is in 80219. Walk through a door and another world reveals itself.