Her Story Didn't End in Prison: Jodi Jenkins' Story (Part 2)Her Story Didn't End in Prison: Jodi Jenkins' Story (Part 2)
Crossroads with Jenny Bushkell
Jodi Jenkins shares how generational addiction, prison, and deep shame gave way to faith, community, and a new life of service with Focus Ministries. The conversation highlights forgiveness, codependency, and practical support for women in jail and re-entry, all framed through a Christian recovery lens.
24:36•3 Sept 2026
Her Story Didn’t End in Prison: Jodi Jenkins on Faith, Sobriety and Second Chances
Episode Overview
- Addiction often runs through families, and can affect anyone regardless of background or social status.
- Community and accountability are vital in recovery; isolation fuels addiction while like-minded support helps sustain change.
- Codependency and enabling can be as harmful as substance use itself, and families may need their own support groups and boundaries.
- Forgiveness is a choice made for the person forgiving, and it can be a long process that gradually breaks chains of shame and resentment.
- Faith in Jesus, combined with structured programmes like the 12 steps, can offer a new way of living for both people in addiction and those leaving prison.
“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks a lot of chains, not just one.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between host Jenny Bushkell and guest Jodi Jenkins offers a raw, faith-filled look at addiction, recovery, and what comes after prison. Jodi, now Behind the Walls Programme Manager at Focus Ministries, talks openly about growing up in a professional family marked by generational addiction, her own descent into alcohol and drugs, and the prison sentence that followed.
She doesn’t sugar-coat anything, laughing wryly about how “the manipulation and the lying is so ingrained in that lifestyle” that she once lied to her child’s doctor for no reason at all, then had to start correcting herself out loud. A big part of the conversation centres on community.
Jodi credits Celebrate Recovery and similar groups with showing her that “the opposite of addiction is community” – people who notice when you’ve disappeared for a few days, knock on your door, and say, “hey, sis, what are we doing?” There’s plenty here for family members too, as Jenny and Jodi talk about codependency, enabling, and how “you can love them right into their grave” if boundaries aren’t in place. Faith runs through everything.
Jodi explains that the 12 steps helped clear the way, but “it was Jesus Christ that changed my life,” and she shares how surrender, repentance, and daily dependence on the Holy Spirit reshaped her choices. She also breaks down the difference between conviction and condemnation, and how shame can keep someone locked in an inner prison long after the cell door opens.
You’ll also hear about Focus Ministries’ classes inside multiple jails, their re-entry home, and “Celebration Sunday”, where even small wins – a job, a phone call with a child – get celebrated. If you’re worn out from carrying guilt, shame, or someone else’s addiction, this story might nudge you to ask: what rope of unforgiveness or control are you still dragging around, and are you ready to let it go?
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