Bernie DeCastro is a unique individual. In spite of his checkered past, Bernie DeCastro is respected all over the State of Florida. From his troubled teenage years until his spiritual rebirth in 1981, Bernie spent almost 19 years locked up in Florida’s criminal justice system for mostly drug related crimes culminating with a life sentence in 1976 for a series of drug store robberies. Since his parole from prison in 1984, Bernie has dedicated his life to keeping Florida’s citizens safe by helping inmates and ex-inmates live productive law-abiding lives.

In 1987, Bernie DeCastro founded Time for Freedom, Inc., (TFF) a faith-based, Florida non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to prisoners and to provide transitional reentry services to ex-offenders. Ten years after being paroled, Governor Lawton Chiles granted Bernie a full pardon.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush was so impressed by Bernie’s transformation and his reputation as a leader in Florida’s faith community that he proclaimed Bernie as “…One of my heroes,” and appointed him to the Task Force on Self-Inflicted Crimes, the Statewide Drug Policy Advisory Council, the Faith-Based Advisory Council and the Ex-Offender Task Force.

In 2008, Bernie DeCastro founded the Florida Ex-Offender Reentry Coalition as a non-profit 501 (c)(3) statewide, grassroots organization whose purpose is to develop, organize and promote the prisoner reentry initiative to confront and attack the vicious cycle of addiction, crime, incarceration and recidivism.

If you ask Bernie what his most important role is he will tell you it is to be a good father to his five children (from 9 to 19) and to see that they grow up with a love for God, for themselves and for others as well as a love and appreciation for the United States of America and an understanding of our Constitution and the history of this great nation.

Accomplishments