“It’s amazing how I spent my whole life in prisons. God sent me back to do His work in the same prisons and even the nut-houses I spent time in.” Photo courtesy of Gary Doucette.

For freedom he was set free

Ex-offender helps rehabilitate criminals with the gospel

By Craig Macartney and ChristianWeek Senior Correspondent | February 13, 2015

RED DEER, AB—Born into an abusive home with two alcoholic parents, Gary Doucette had his first run-in with the police at age 10. Doucette’s life was on a reckless path that landed him in numerous jails and institutions for the criminally insane. But one night, as he walked into a jail cell, Doucette had an amazing encounter that radically changed his life’s course.

Doucette started on a journey of learning to follow God—a journey that would lead him back into the same jails he knew so well, only now he goes as a free citizen, helping other offenders find freedom in Jesus Christ.

“I was 22 when I first went to jail,” says Doucette. “I was selling drugs and I got in a high-speed police chase. I was listening to highway to hell when I hit the first car. I ended writing off my own car, hitting two others and putting people in the hospital.”

Addicted to drugs and alcohol, Doucette’s life continued spiralling out of control as he was diagnosed manic depressive, attempted suicide and was sent to jail a second time. He spent a total of 457 days behind bars, including 111 days in psychiatric care.

Then, in 1987, after being arrested chasing biker gang members with an axe, Doucette had what he calls a “Damascus road experience.”

“I had only taken three steps into the cell when it felt like a hand came through the roof and threw me on the floor. A video of my life started playing in my mind and all the emotions I was holding in started coming out. I knew it was God and I started begging for mercy. It felt like God was saying, ‘this is what you did with the life I gave you?’”

As quickly as it started, the experience ended and for the first time Doucette says he felt peace. Out on bail the next day, he realized alcohol had been a factor in every scene that flashed through his mind, so he enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous and earned his nine-months-sober badge by the time his case reached court.

“I was given a conditional discharge with conditional probation because the judge was amazed how much I had changed. I ended up in Newfoundland, started an AA group out there and my two years’ probation ended while I was serving in Newfoundland. I’ve been doing prison ministry ever since.”

Doucette went to college to study addictions counselling and graduated with honours at the top of his class. While studying to become an addictions counsellor, Doucette started noticing crosses everywhere. He decided to visit a local church where his grandparents had taken him to Sunday school as a child.

“Pastor Richard Long was talking about the prodigal son and I looked at my wife and said, ‘did you tell him I was coming?’ I thought he was talking about me. After the service, I asked another of my friends how Richard knew I was coming and he answered, ‘you know what, if you were the only person on Earth, Jesus would have died for you.’ For the first time, I really believed it.”

Long helped Doucette get plugged in to the church and the two became friends. Long remembers walking with Doucette through the difficult journey to freedom.

“I remember the incredible mix of freedom and pain he experienced. He began the process of letting the Lord start His healing work, but that meant embracing the pain. Today, he is able to use all that he learned to help other people who feel they have gone as low as it is possible to go. I am personally awed at the transformation the Lord has done in his life and the way God is using him to bring hope and redemption to others.”

While most of society views offenders as a burden, costing hundreds of thousands in tax dollars, Doucette sees them in a different light.

“No matter whether they are a pedophile or murderer, inside every offender there is a little boy or little girl. There are no hopeless cases,” Doucette states. “The public is often very judgemental and revenge focused, including people in churches, but Jesus died for people like that.”

Doucette says he has compassion when he meets drunks, bikers and prostitutes, because he knows what it’s like to believe you’re too far gone for Jesus to save you.

“ God weeps over these people. In jail, they have panic buttons on the wall in each cell. When a panic button gets pushed, all the guards rush to that area; it’s called ‘Code Blue.’ Well, a little while back, Jesus told me, ‘It’s code blue, Gary. Get in there and get them.’ So that’s what I do. I want to spend the rest of my life in jail.”