Joseph Smith called for prisons to be "turned into seminaries of learning." He said, "Rigor and seclusion will never do as much to reform the propensities of man as reason and friendship."

Without benefit of Internet access, a privilege denied the prison inmates, the center's patrons last month extracted some 146,000 names as part of the FamilySearch indexing project whereby volunteers around the world digitize microfilmed records to make them accessible to enthusiasts researching their genealogical information via personal computers. 

"But to me, the more important number is the close to 10,000 total hours a month spent here in the center by the inmates," Elder Lunt said. "That's time they weren't up on the cell blocks, time when they were in an environment that was constructive. And frankly, it's an environment where the Spirit is, and they can feel that. Some of them don't know what it is; they just say, 'We feel good down here.' "

Much of the success of the center is due to the volunteers who come and interact with the inmates, Elder Lunt said. The center is open seven days a week in three shifts, the first one beginning at 8 a.m. and the last one ending at 8 in the evening. But the number of inmates who may use the center is limited by the number of volunteers who come.

In 2000, he [inmate William Thomas] was involved in the Freedman's Bank Project, a service provided by inmates at the prison to help compile what is now one of the richest databases for African-American research. A plaque on the wall at the family history center commemorates the work they performed. [See more information on African-American Family History Resources]

"That is exactly what this great work is all about, search and rescue," . . . . And in the process, some inmates are finding they, too, are among the rescued.