The Role and Impact of Long-Term, Faith-Based Reentry Programs After Incarceration (original) (raw)
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2010
This paper examined the usefulness of jail reentry programs as an alternative towards increased jail and prison costs. Policy issues for returning inmates could and often did include future employment prospects, housing and public safety. Prisoner reentry programs generally fell into two broad categories; faith and non-faith based. Generally, non-faith programs were conducted in jail or prison while the individual was incarcerated for an extended period of time.Non-faith type programs involved classes on anger management, G.E.D. attainment, college credits, or alcohol or drug abuse therapy. Faith based programs were generally Christian based, although they usually did not discriminate against other individuals of different religions joining their program. Faith based programs were usually conducted outside of the jail/prison environment. However, a few jails and prisons did keep Bible or religious wings
2005
The current research investigates the faith, sociodemographic, psychological, and criminal history factors associated with the decision to volunteer for a faith-based program. Operational records were combined with data collected from self-administered surveys. The results of the logistic regression model were successful in identifying factors related to program participation, including factors not included in previous studies. The findings suggest that program participants are motivated to make changes in their lives and are seeking their way in a religious sense. For example, program participants scored higher on average on the motivation for change scale used here, had higher rates of attendance in religious services since incarceration, and were more active in reading sacred scripture. Conversely, inmates who claimed higher levels of knowledge about their faith were less likely to participate in the Life Connections Program examined here.
Religion and Rehabilitation as Moral Reform: Conceptualization and Preliminary Evidence
American Journal of Criminal Justice, 2022
We examine how religion contributes to rehabilitation, which we conceptualize as moral reform and operationalize in terms of self-identity, existential belief, and character. We hypothesize that religion contributes to identity transformation, a sense of meaning and purpose in life, and virtue development. We also hypothesize that faith-based rehabilitation reduces negative emotions and the risk of interpersonal aggression. We conducted a quasi-experiment on a faith-based program in a state jail and a maximum-security prison in Texas, using a convenience sample of male inmates. To test our hypotheses, we compare inmates who graduated the program with those who did not and applied manifest-variable structural equation modeling to analyze data from pretest and posttest surveys. Program participation was linked to an increase in religiosity, which contributed to identity transformation (cognitive and emotional transformations and crystallization of discontent), the perceived presence of meaning and purpose in life, and virtues (including selfcontrol, compassion, and forgiveness). Faith-based rehabilitation in turn reduced state depression and anxiety and the probability of engaging in aggression toward another inmate. This study provides preliminary evidence of religion's rehabilitative effect on offenders; findings which hold promise for prison administrators looking for creative ways to support evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to rehabilitation within the correctional system.
The Faith Factor and Prisoner Reentry
2009
Between 1980 and 2006, the U.S. prison population increased by 467 percent (from 319,598 to 1,492,973). The inevitable increase in the number of released prisoners returning to communities across the country (approximately 700,000 ex-prisoners per year) has created a national debate about how best to handle the prisoner reentry crisis. Religious activities can play a positive role in the lives of prisoners while they are incarcerated, and research shows that religiosity is associated with reducing negative outcomes and promoting prosocial behavior. Consequently, faith-based organizations can play an important role in helping to reduce recidivism. A multifaceted approach to prisoner reentry would require new public-private partnerships and a significant influx of volunteers, many of whom could be drawn from religious congregations. Intermediary groups are necessary to bring a comprehensive prisoner reentry effort to scale because these organizations serve as the bridge between ex-pri...
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation , 2011
Faith-based organizations administer many of the prison-based programs aimed at reducing recidivism. Many of these organizations also manage treatment programs for substance abusers, at-risk juveniles,and ex-offenders.Much of the research on religiosity and delinquency indicates that the two are inversely related. Therefore,it seems plausible that faith-based programs, which are rooted in religious organizations, may be effective tools for reducing deviant and criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the empirical evidence supports such a claim. This study is an evidence-based assessment of the effectiveness of faith-based programs for reducing recidivism. The results of this study indicate that faith-based programs ‘‘work’’ to reduce recidivism. Directions for future research are discussed.
Faith-Based Programs for Reentry Courts: A Summary of Issues and Recommendations
Juvenile and Family Court Journal, 2004
In 2002, the Bush Administration directed the Department of Justice to include faith-based organizations in its distribution of funds earmarked for programs targeting the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and substance abuse. Among the initiatives most likely to be affected by this new policy are reentry court programs that endeavor to reintegrate juvenile delinquents into their communities by placing them within local neighborhood-based programs. However, reentry court personnel and leaders of faith-based organizations are likely to encounter numerous challenges as they try to establish appropriate programming. In this article, we discuss the current understanding of First Amendment jurisprudence governing the federal funding of faith-based organizations and summarize key issues identified by a National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' workgroup on faith-based programming that are necessary for including faith-based organizations within a reentry court's continuum of care. We also discuss several concerns that reentry court personnel and faith-based organizations should consider as they seek to maximize the impact of their programs.
Estimating the Benefits of a Faith-Based Correctional Program
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2013
A recent outcome evaluation of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (InnerChange), a faith-based prisoner reentry program that has operated within Minnesota's prison system since 2002, showed the program is effective in lowering recidivism. This study extends research on InnerChange by conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the program. Because InnerChange relies heavily on volunteers and program costs are privately funded, the program exacts no additional costs to the State of Minnesota. As a result, this study focused on estimating the program's benefits by examining recidivism and post-release employment. The findings showed that during its first six years of operation in Minnesota, InnerChange produced an estimated benefit of 3million,whichamountstonearly3 million, which amounts to nearly 3million,whichamountstonearly8,300 per participant. Much of this benefit stems from costs avoided as a result of the program's impact on reoffending.
As prison populations continue to rise, faith-based and restorative justice programs show protnise in influencing offenders' internal motivations and external behaviors. Using a one-group, pretest-posttest design, this pilot study found significant change in offenders' (n=102) moral motivations (empathy, perspective taking, forgiveness, proneness to forgive, daily spiritual experiences, and relationships with others) after their self-selected participation in a 14-week faith-based program that draws from the principles of restorative justice. Hierarchical regression models were used to examine the impact of reported subscription to Christianity on pretests and score changes. At pre-test, Christian participants (n = 66) were more likely to forgive than non-Christian participants (n = 33) who conversely were more likely to see the perspectives of others, Christian offenders had significantly higher change scores on perspective taking and empathic concern than non-Christian participants. Findings have implications for the use of faith based programs and victim-centered curriculum to change offenders' moral motivations and for matching faith-based Christian programs with Christian participants.
Religion, Reform, Community: Examining the Idea of Church-based Prisoner Reentry
PsycEXTRA Dataset
This paper examines two apparent assumptions underlying current discussions about church-based prisoner reentry programs. First, these discussions implicitly understand prisons as places where criminals are punished, not as places where people are directed away from criminality. The task of effecting "permanent behavioral change" in ex-offenders is taken to be the domain of the social world outside prison walls. Churches, which are taken as expert alchemists in the transformation of sinner to saint, are considered natural and ideal candidates for this work. Second, the language of "reintegration" into "community" and "neighborhood" via religious institutions implies a certain understanding of churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples as "community institutions." The assumption is that churches are open communitiesthat is, they are open to serving nonmembers as well as members, and they are somehow embedded in the social life of the neighborhoods where they happen to congregate. These assumptions certainly are valid; indeed, many religious communities around the country offer compelling support for such assumptions. But these assumptions are not the only valid ones we can or should make in our strategic thinking about prisoner reentry. Indeed, studies that seek to determine the viability of such programs should not focus exclusively on those churches already struggling to fill the void produced by an increasingly punitive and decreasingly rehabilitative criminal justice system. My own observation of churches, particularly those operating in poor urban settings, suggests divergent but equally valid assumptions we might make about the way churches operate, and what churches are inclined to do. Policymakers aiming to encourage or design church-based prisoner reentry programs should take seriously these alternative assumptions, as well as those that animate widely celebrated existing programs.