"Former Virginia attorney general Mark L. Earley, who was the state's top prosecutor from 1997 to 2001, will lead a nonprofit group devoted to bringing the Gospel to people behind bars, organization leaders said yesterday.

Earley, who lost his Republican bid for governor last fall to Mark R. Warner (D), will be president and chief executive of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an evangelical organization founded by Watergate conspirator Charles W. Colson.

For Colson, the selection culminates a four-year search for a successor. For Earley, a leader of the state GOP's religious right, the appointment brings the former college missionary full circle.

'I plan to be actively involved in the direct ministry to prisoners in prisons, going into prisons to share the Gospel and help lead our ministry, as well as [develop] national strategy about where that ministry goes in the future,' Earley said.

Earley's religious faith has played a significant role in shaping his life and politics. He was a religion major at the College of William & Mary and also joined the Navigators, a Christian youth group. After graduation in 1976, Earley contemplated entering the ministry and spent two years in Manila as a campus missionary with the Navigators at the University of the Philippines.

Earley, backed by social conservatives and evangelical Christians, served as a state senator from 1987 to 1997 before becoming attorney general. He resigned from the post last June to run against Warner.

As attorney general, Earley often supported policies that put him in a position squarely opposed to the interests of the people to whom he will minister. He was an unwavering supporter of the death penalty. His office fought against granting new DNA tests in some high-profile capital cases, although he ultimately endorsed legislation allowing prisoners to go to court seeking new DNA tests. As a state senator, Earley led the fight to abolish parole under then-Gov. George Allen (R). In the race for governor, Earley played up his law-and-order credentials after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But Earley said he doubted that his former law enforcement duties would be an issue in the prison population. Many people involved in the prison ministry have also been involved in law enforcement, he said. And as a lawyer, he has experience working with defendants as a defense attorney and prosecutor.

Earley said he hoped to focus on helping prisoners' families, particularly children, and to encourage programs that prepare felons for life after their release.

'To me, one of the profound impacts of this ministry is not that it just ministers to prisoners but to prisoners' families and also to the victims of crime,' he said.

The appointment is effective Feb. 1. Colson, 70, will remain as chairman of the Reston-based ministry, which operates in all 50 states and 93 countries.

'Four years ago, when we started the search process, the headhunter asked me if I could think of just one person who would be perfect for what we wanted. I said, 'Yes, Mark Earley,' ' Colson said.

But Earley had just been elected attorney general. The day after Earley lost to Warner, Colson rang him up.

'I said, 'Maybe God closed one door and opened another,' ' Colson said.

Colson said Earley's role in politics will serve him well in the Christian ministry.

'The Christian ministry is a movement, and politics is a movement. He's had experience in moving volunteers and giving a vision people want to follow,' Colson said.

Colson said he intends to remain active in the ministry while grooming Earley to take over in a few years. Colson, who served time in prison, also said Earley's reputation should not affect his rapport with prisoners.

'I don't think it matters that you were a law-and-order attorney general. I think it matters that you're a Christian,' Colson said.

Earley, 47, a father of six, will be leaving the Troutman Sanders law firm in Richmond. He said he and his wife plan to move to the Reston area this summer." (Fredrick Kunkle, The Washington Post, January 11, 2002)