Cop Turned Prison Preacher Uses Tough Talk To Spread Message Of Hope, Acceptance

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An NYPD officer who spent his career arresting people is now spending his retirement helping them.

As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, a prison preacher is talking tough while spreading a message of hope and acceptance.

"I used to lead Brooklyn north in gun arrests for years, locked up a lot of people," Jimmy Dennedy said.

You might say he bleeds blue.

"My family goes back to 1882 in the police department," he said.

Dennedy is third generation NYPD. He retired after 20 years.

"I cared about the job. You work with good guys, sometimes they get hurt," he said.

Make no mistake, Dennedy is tough.

"I was a rough house guy," he said.

He even lived through a shootout in his own home.

"Guys peeking in the door with a gun in his hand, and the shooting started in the house, and I got one guy, and the other guy got away," he explained.

That was more than 25 years ago, but then, as now, his mission remains the same.

"If you're trying to stop people from robbing, killing, hurting, selling drugs. Now, you try to do it from the inside out," he said.

The inside that Dennedy is talking about are two upstate correctional facilities -- Otisville and Shawangunk where he is regularly surrounded by murderers, robbers, and sex offenders.

"Some guys have five bodies, some have more," he explained.

For two decades Dennedy has traveled to these prisons every week with his dog-eared bible to preach, to minister, and to listen.

"A lot of these guys have committed really heinous crimes, and they're never gonna get out of there, but that's somebody's kid too, somebody's son," he said. "I don't pull any punches. They talk about a shooting, I talk about a shooting."

William Brennan was in for murder and died in prison a year ago. His widow wrote to tell Dennedy just what his weekly visits meant.

"Make him believe that he is a free man in his heart and to never give up hope," she wrote.

Dennedy admitted it was tough to read.

"I will never forget what you've done for my husband or for the other men. You not only touch the men inside, you touch the families on the outside," Cathy Brennan said.

Brennan saw first hand the impact that Dennedy had.

"He's like a counselor but in a different way. He's part of them, he became their extended family," Brennan explained.

The irony was ever present.

"You arrest them and now you're there helping them," Brennan said.

Jimmy Lynch has been out of prison for 9 years. Over the course of his 49 years, he's served a total of 24. The last 6 were ministered by Dennedy.

"He could get to the core of you. He could get in you and you could express yourself," Lynch said. "I know for a fact he's had a major impact on thousands of people's lives."