Circle Members

Rev. Dr. Hector B. Custodio (better known as Pastor Benny) spent twenty years as a wrongfully convicted man. While in prison, he earned his GED and BA. In 2006, he was accepted into the New York Theological Seminary Master’s program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. In 2007, he became the coordinator of Rising Hope, a college-level program, at Fishkill Correctional Facility. After release in 2011, Pastor Benny earned his Credentialed Alcohol Substance Abuse Counseling license and became an NYS Chaplain. A member of the NY State Chaplaincy Task Force and an ordained minister, Pastor Benny works with mental health, substance abuse, and re-entry. He is also Senior Pastor at Immanuel-First Spanish United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, and currently establishing his non-profit organization, Never Forsaken Re-entry Ministries, Inc. He earned a Doctorate in Ministry from the Andover Newton Theological School and is a Suffolk-based Outreach Supervisor with S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth, Inc