WASHINGTON, March 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prison Fellowship®, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and their families, announces an agreement has been reached between Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Prison Fellowship to purchase its 11.3 acre campus, located in Lansdowne, Virginia.

“For the last five years Prison Fellowship has become an increasingly virtual organization with more people operating closer to our in-prison work. Over two-thirds of our staff were working from home even before the pandemic,” said James Ackerman, President and CEO of Prison Fellowship. “The Board of Prison Fellowship and the senior management team are thrilled Alliance Defending Freedom will operate on the same property and buildings our founder, the late Charles Colson, dedicated to the Lord.”

Prison Fellowship has occupied the current location since January of 2005 after outgrowing its Reston, Virginia, location. As part of the sale, an agreement has been reached with ADF for the ministry to lease space in the building for two years. Prison Fellowship has been a partnering member of ADF for more than two years.

“We are thrilled to reach this agreement with our partners at Prison Fellowship,” said Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO, Michael P. Farris. “Prison Fellowship’s founder, the late Chuck Colson, was a strong advocate for freedom of conscience and religion. As a drafter of the Manhattan Declaration, he defended the very principles that we defend today. With the purchase of this new property, we carry on his legacy and begin a new and exciting chapter in ADF’s 28 years of ministry as the world’s largest legal advocacy organization committed to protecting religious freedom, sanctity of life, freedom of speech, and parental rights.”

“I have been in regular contact with James since he took the helm at Prison Fellowship and as the former Chairman of the Board of Prison Fellowship and major donor to the building, I can say I am very pleased with the progress that has been made over the past several years under his leadership,” said Mike Timmis, “They have now moved past their need for such a large building, and I’m excited that the Lord’s work will continue there, just with a different Christian nonprofit.”

“On behalf of the current board of directors for Prison Fellowship, we are thrilled that ADF will be moving into the building that was dedicated to the Lord’s work in 2005 and has served Prison Fellowship so well over these past several years,” said Paul Cauwels, current Prison Fellowship Board member. “While it is bittersweet to see the transfer, it is a blessing that the partnership between Prison Fellowship and ADF can continue in this new way.”

The current Prison Fellowship campus located off Riverside Parkway in Lansdowne, Virginia, includes a three-story office building and a two-story hospitality center.

Prison Fellowship
Prison Fellowship is the nation's largest nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and their families, and a leading advocate for justice reform. We seek to share the real, living hope of the Gospel with people who long for its power to make them new. Real restoration begins by addressing the cycle of crime on all fronts, in prison and out, and engaging in a cycle of renewal.

Alliance Defending Freedom
The Lansdowne campus is an expansion of ADF’s offices in Atlanta, Georgia; Ashburn, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life. ADF has achieved 11 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court since 2011 and has played roles in 60 Supreme Court victories over the last quarter century.