Former New Jersey Politician Spends 10 Months In Jail And Converts To Christianity

James Treffinger was running for the Senate in 2002 when it was discovered he was accepting illegal campaign contributions in return for county contracts and using two county employees as campaign operatives. His 10 month sentence left him a changed man

10 months in a federal prison redirected James Treffinger's life from that of aspiring politician, to becoming a student at Princeton Theological Seminary with a plan to start a prison ministry. James told the Newark Star-Ledger that he turned to God after learning he was under investigation. Previously a Catholic, he became a Baptist under the guidance of Rev. Gregory Tyree of Brookfield Baptist Church in Bloomfield. He indicates that the 10 months locked away showed him the direction he wanted to take in his life once released. "I got to see people who, for whatever reason, had come to the very bottom of their existence," Treffinger said. "If there's one group that's marginalized it's prisoners. They have no lobby. They don't vote so there's no bloc. There's just no one watching their interest." His guilty plea cost him his law license. Now a free man, he is a full time student, and works as the part time administrator for the Brookfield Baptist Church. Nice to see someone take their wrongs and try to make them right. Sometimes people have to really hit the proverbial wall before they realize they are headed down the wrong path. Glad that his 10 months behind bars filled him with hope for the future, rather than anger and despair.