Pardon To Help Crossville Native Open More Doors

Crossville native Ralph Reagan received a pardon from Governor Bill Haslam Thursday for his 1980 and 1982 burglary convictions in Cumberland County and 1984 conviction for escape in Knox County.

Reagan left prison some 30-years ago and in 2001 he started the Bread of Life Rescue Mission, which provides food, shelter, medical care, and other services to underprivileged citizens.

Reagan said he’s been trying to receive a pardon for more than 20-years.

“What the pardon will do is help me open more doors that cannot be opened,” Reagan said. “It was a goal in my life to help people understand that a change in life and your attitude toward the world system, there’s a way out from underneath it.”

Reagan said a change in his life happened as he sat in a Crossville jail cell a few nights after his arrest for escape. For a reason he can’t explain, Reagan said he picked up a bible and began thumbing through it.

“I started reading and the Lord just started speaking to my heart in a way that I knew there was a real God and I knew God was real,” Reagan said. “I knew my life was headed in a direction where I was getting tired of it going and I needed some sort of relief. I got on my knees there and prayed and asked God into my life.”

Reagan began serving as a volunteer for the prison system shortly after his release and he’s continued that service ever since through his Bread of Life prison ministry. Reagan said he tries to spread the message of hope to those currently behind bars.

“There is hope if they would just call here and let me talk with them,” Reagan said, “Whenever it looks like you’re at the end of the rope, there is help if you want it and will receive it the way God wants you to.”

Reagan was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Cumberland County Bar Association in 2008 for his service in that community and has received numerous other awards and distinctions. The Board of Parole unanimously recommended granting Reagan a pardon, and numerous Cumberland County leaders wrote in support of his request.