Centurion Ministries

Although Centurion Ministries was created by James C. McCloskey out of a spiritual calling, Centurion is not a religious organization. These are investigators and advocates for the wrongfully convicted and their work focuses on reinvestigating cases with the goal of vindicating those factually innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. It is irrelevant to Centurion Ministries what religion, if any, that an inmate or beneficiary practices. This also applies to their staff and all those who work with them to help free the convicted innocent (i.e.: volunteers, attorneys, investigators, etc.). Their sole concern and focus is on an inmate's factual innocence. Thus, Centurion Ministries is a purely secular organization even though Mr. McCloskey feels spiritually called to do this work. He named the organization Centurion Ministries after the Roman Centurion who proclaimed while standing at the foot of the cross, "Surely, this one is innocent."

Jim McCloskey was raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia and is a 1964 graduate of Bucknell University. After three years as a naval officer in Japan & Vietnam, he spent 13 years in business, primarily as an executive for two different international management consulting firms, one in Tokyo & another in Philadelphia, The Hay Group. He left the business world for the ministry in 1979. Subsequent to earning a Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, he officially founded Centurion Ministries, Inc. in 1983. However, McCloskey actually began the work of Centurion Ministries in 1980 as a student Chaplain at Trenton State Prison.

Their office is not designed to handle huge volumes of phone calls or email, they firmly request that ALL inquiries come in the form of a letter so that they may carefully review them and answer them in a complete and efficient manner. Please be sure to write legibly and include a full return address. Please allow 8 to 10 weeks for a reply. They read and respond to all letters.

Additionally, please note that when reviewing a case, it is their policy to work directly with the inmate ONLY. The inmate will be responsible for obtaining and supplying all needed information and documentation. It is the inmate's responsibility to keep friends and family updated regarding the status of their case with Centurion Ministries. They will not carbon copy letters to friends and family. Please review the section Centurion Ministries' Criteria for Considering Review of a Case under general procedures for submitting requests page before writing to them about a case.

Their Website is: centurionministries.org

Mail letters to:

Centurion Ministries, Inc.
221 Witherspoon Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08542-3215