Hope for Prisoners CEO Jon Ponder's bond set at $1M after grand jury indictment

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Editor's note: The video above is from a previous report on Aug. 19, 2026.

Jon Ponder, the founder of the nonprofit Hope for Prisoners, was formally indicted Wednesday by a Clark County grand jury on charges related to allegations he sexually abused inmates participating in his program.

According to a document obtained by Channel 13, Ponder faces the following charges:

• 16 counts of unauthorized custodial contact with prisoner by prison employee, contractor or volunteer
• 2 counts of sexual abuse of prisoner by prison employee, contractor or volunteer
• 4 counts of sexual assault
• 2 counts of first-degree kidnapping
• 1 count of open or gross lewdness

A new arrest warrant for Ponder lists his bail at $1 million. He's also ordered to have high-level electronic monitoring, possess no weapons, surrender his passport and have no contact with seven victims, identified by their initials, listed in the indictment. He's scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 5.

According to the indictment, Ponder kissed one of the victims, asked the prisoner to leave designated areas, made requests for sexual conduct and asked the prisoner to write a "sex letter" describing possible sexual acts.

Other allegations include sexually explicit statements or requests, unwanted touching, kissing and requests to engage in sexual acts.

A previous arrest report obtained by Channel 13 laid out in detail a disturbing pattern of alleged abuse involving Ponder.

One alleged victim said she was at Jean Conservation Camp in late 2023 after a DUI conviction when she began engaging with Hope For Prisoners and Ponder after attending their Christmas event, where women were reunited with their children.

When Ponder told her, "I have a crush on you," she told police that she saw an opportunity to be reunited with her children.

She told police that at the event, Ponder asked her to walk away with him so he could "kiss her." The victim told police that Ponder continued to escalate his behavior, saying sexually inappropriate things, forcing her to perform sex acts on him, and that other inmates began to mistreat her due to the favoritism that Ponder was showing her.

Another victim told police that she joined the Hope For Prisoners workshop program in October 2025, and she felt Ponder "singled her out." The second time the victim went to a life skills and interviewing class, Ponder called her out of class and told the instructor he needed to talk to her.

Ponder then walked her to his office, closed the door, and immediately began groping her and sexually assaulting her, the report alleges.

According to the arrest report, this pattern of abuse continued all the way through March 2026.

Another victim told police that she was afraid to report the incidents to her parole officer because "I felt like I was gonna get in trouble ... I just, more or less, didn't want people to look at me like I'm dirty."

According to the arrest report, another woman told them that Ponder was like a "father figure" to her and he offered to drive her from Jean Conservation Camp to a gas station to pick up her vehicle. They were talking about life when he allegedly unzipped his pants and exposed himself.

Officials with the Nevada Department of Corrections conducted an initial investigation into allegations against Ponder in April through the Office of the Inspector General. They referred the matter to Las Vegas police and banned Ponder from entering any NDOC facility, starting on April 23, 2026.

The organization looked into some of the claims in 2020, and Ponder was briefly suspended. However, he was reinstated after he received a pardon from President Donald Trump in 2020 for burglary crimes he was convicted of in the mid-2000s.