KEARNY, N.J. — Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey has found a niche mentoring women inmates seven years after coming out as the country's first openly gay governor and resigning over an affair with a male staffer.
McGreevey is the spiritual counselor to 40 women incarcerated at the Hudson County Correctional Center, one of New Jersey's largest jails. The women are part of a pilot program that is addressing the problems that keep them returning to jail: drug dependence, difficulty finding jobs, lack of decent housing and lack of psychological counseling.
The 54-year-old former governor came to jailhouse ministry after enrolling in an Episcopal seminary in 2007, three years after he abruptly resigned as governor.
He hopes to be an ordained priest someday.
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