Our Journey
On September 11, 2001, the world stopped. Smoke filled the skies of New York, the Pentagon shook, and a quiet field in Pennsylvania became sacred ground. Lives were lost in an instant, families were shattered forever, and a nation was pierced with grief.
I was not there in the streets of New York. I was in a prison cell in Winslow, Arizona, watching on a 13-inch TV with my cellmate. But like millions of others, I remember the images burned into my soul: the Towers collapsing, the desperate cries, and above all; the first responders running toward the flames.
And as I sat in my cell, I was undone. My life as a gangster, as a man who took and harmed without thought, crumbled beneath the weight of that moment. I knew I could never live that way again. To harm another
soul after seeing what sacrifice and courage looked like, that would be the most despicable thing I could be. Something in me died that day, and something new began to live.
But it wasn’t willpower that changed me; it was Christ. In the days and years that followed, the words of Jesus became my compass. His grace tore down my excuses, His love confronted my guilt, and His cross gave me a new way forward. The same power that raised Him from the grave began to raise me from my brokenness. That is the true story of my transformation: Christ met me in a prison cell, and His healing became my freedom.
That day, 9/11, became my turning point. But more than that, it became my WHY. For the first time, I began to see not just the men I ran with or the crimes I committed, but the faces of the people I had hurt; the families who bore the weight of my choices. I knew I could never fully comprehend the depth of their pain, but I also knew my life from that moment forward had to be lived in a way that honored them.
Prison 2 Praise Ministries was born from that conviction: that victims and survivors must never be forgotten, that their pain matters, and that their voices belong at the very center of restoration. Every program we create, whether mentorship, recovery, workforce training, family healing, or creative expression exists to break cycles of harm and to honor those who have carried its weight.
Today, Prison 2 Praise Ministries carries that vision outward. We are unapologetically Christian and even more unapologetically loving. Whether you are incarcerated, newly released, standing by a loved one, or living with the wounds of crime, you belong here.
This is not just an organization. This is my testimony: a declaration that no past is too broken, no wound too deep, and no prison is stronger than the love of Christ.
And to the victims and survivors of 9/11, of crime, of injustice; this ministry exists to honor you. Your pain is not forgotten. Your voice will always matter here.
— Frantz Beasley
Founder & Executive Director
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
-Romans 5:8
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
-Dr. Maya Angelou
