Restorative Justice Ministries Network Emmett Solomon, Executive Director
Emmett began jail ministry as a volunteer in 1955. After attending seminaries in New York, Kentucky and Fort Worth, TX, he began his career as a Correctional Chaplain in 1964 at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. He completed 5 units of Clinical Pastoral Education and also earned his Masters Degree in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University.
After 20 years as a Correctional Chaplain in Texas, he was promoted to the Director of Chaplain’s Office. After serving there for 10 years, he took early retirement and founded the Restorative Justice Ministries Network in 1993. He is the publisher of a quarterly trade journal, “Restorative Justice News.” It is mailed to 3,000 churches, 4,000 jails and prisons, and 57,000 ministry volunteers around North America.The network sponsors regional restorative justice ministry conferences. There are plans to con-duct five regional conferences in Texas in 2007. The network also sponsors training events and the annual Restorative Justice Week the 2nd week in November each year.
In conjunction with the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, the network distributes to churches and ministries, the names and addresses of formerly incarcerated people on the day they leave jails and prisons in Texas. These people have asked to be contacted by churches and ministries after they return to their home communities.
During the 2006 Regular Legislative Session in Austin, he was active on behalf of sentence reform in Texas.
Emmett married his lovely wife, January, in 1957. She completed a career in correctional education in 2000 and is now an Adjunct Professor at Sam Houston State University. They have two sons, and three grandchildren. They live in Huntsville, TX which is located in the piney woods along Interstate 45, 70 miles north of Houston and 170 miles south of Dallas.
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