Religious Programs, Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism Among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs. JUSTICE QUARTERLY, Vol. No. 1, March 1. 99. Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. This study examines the impact of religious programs on institutional adjustment and recidivism rates in two matched groups of inmates from four adult male prisons in New York State. One group had participated in programs sponsored by Prison Fellowship PF the other had no involvement with PF. Note The link to the application is located at the bottom of this page. If you are considering applying, it is strongly recommended that you first read all of the. For anyone that has a same sex partner, family member, friend or Pen Pal in prison that is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered. Of Obamas Leftover Staffers Could Be Going To Prison After What Trump Just Busted Them Doing. Prison education, also known as Inmate Education and Correctional Education, is a broad term that encompasses any number of educational activities occurring inside a. Whole Foods has been forced to stop selling goat cheese made from milk that came from a prison farm, where inmates work for less than a dollar an hour. Yet. PF and non PF inmates are similar on measures of institutional adjustment, as measured by both general and serious prison infractions, and recidivism, as measured by arrests during a one year follow up period. However, after controlling for level of involvement in PF sponsored programs, inmates who were most active in Bible studies were significantly less likely to be rearrested during the follow up period. As long as there have been prisons, religious education and training have been offered to prisoners. Religious programs for inmates are not only among the oldest but also among the most common forms of rehabilitative programs found in correctional facilities today. This high prevalence of use is confirmed by the U. S. Department of Justice 1. Americans prison population. After admission to prison, 6. Among all other types of personal enhancement programs offered in prison, religious activities attracted the most participation 3. Bible studies and church services, 2. This national survey verifies what many correctional practitioners and volunteers have observed for years Many inmates continue to attend and participate in religious programs. These percentages are quite revealing, nearly one inmate in three is involved in religious programs. Yet despite these figures, only a handful of published studies Clear et al. B. Johnson 1. 98. In contrast to the corrections literature, the broader criminological topic of religion and deviance has received ongoing, although still sporadic, scholarly attention see Evans et al. Researchers in the latter area usually consider the influence of religious commitment, as measured by frequency of religious practice such as church attendance or by the importance of ones religion, on some indicator of deviance. For example, researchers have studied single items of religious commitment and their associations with an array of delinquent activities such as alcohol abuse, drug use, and sexual activity B. Johnson 1. 98. 7. The scarcity of research about prisoners and the influence of religious variables on inmates adjustment and recidivism can be attributed to potential problematic biases held by both religious workers and scientific researchers Larson et al. Larson et al. 1. 99. Larson, Sherrill, and Lyons 1. Post 1. 99. 5. Many chaplains, ministers, and religious volunteers who work in religious programs have been reluctant or have lacked the skills to undertake publishable research. This reluctance had been fueled by a broader historical skepticism about the relevance of religion held by many in higher education, and at best by university researchers ambivalence in studying spirituality or religion Jones 1. Larson et al. 1. 99. Tocqueville 1. 83. We can measure rehabilitation, but we cannot measure reformation. Though we can observe that some inmates unquestionably may have changed in positive ways, there is no way of observing whether they have repented. The former inmate still may be a very bad person on the inside, but as long as he does not commit illegal acts when he leaves prison, as he did previously, he is rehabilitated. This intriguing distinction warrants research. Other than anecdotal accounts, the literature contains relatively little research linking the possible influence of religion to its potential beneficial, neutral, or even harmful influence on the rehabilitation of offenders. This deficit is somewhat surprising because most of the published studies have found inverse and essentially beneficial relationships between measures usually single item measures of religiousness and various measures of crime or delinquency. In a recent, important study, Evans et al. This finding held even after controlling for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. The results of that study are noteworthy because some research has shown that various measures of religiosity or religious commitment lose their significance in the presence of secular controls Albrecht, Chadwick, and Alcorn 1. Cochran, Wood, and Arneklev 1. Elifson, Peterson, and Hadaway 1. Evans et al. 1. 99. Their results are consistent with other published research showing that religion has similar benefits in other areas of impulse control or deviance, such as drug and alcohol abuse Gartner, Larson, and Allen 1. Photomosaic Maker Free Download more. Larson et al. 1. 99. If religion can inhibit delinquent and criminal activity, why might it not facilitate the process as well as the outcomes of prison rehabilitation Aside from complex and difficult theological discussion about the possible spiritual roles of religion, as well as the evidence demonstrating the mental and physical health benefits of religion Bergin 1. Gartner et al. 1. Larson, Sherrill, and Lyons 1. Levin and Vanderpool 1. Religion targets antisocial values, emphasizes accountability and responsibility, changes cognitive approaches to conflict, and provides social support and social skills through interaction with religious people and communities Bergin 1. Levin and Vanderpool 1. Martin and Carlson 1. Such emphases seem to be consistent with what many rehabilitation workers would call principles of effective treatment. Byron Johnson 1. Florida prison inmates. He operationalized the dependent variable, institutional adjustment, by creating an index of the amount of time served in disciplinary confinement as a result of violating institutional rules. The religiosity indexes were based on and derived from data contained in the files of 7. Apalachee Correctional Institution in Florida from 1. One index was based on the inmates self reported religiousness a second was based on the chaplains perceptions of the inmates religiousness the third was based on the inmates attendance at church related activities in prison. The findings revealed that none of the three indexes were related in any significant way to institutional adjustment. In a larger and more recent project, Clear et al. Unlike Byron Johnson 1. Clear and his colleagues were able to study religion in prison more comprehensively. They did so by using ethnographic research with a research design that included 1 administration of questionnaires to inmates, 2 focus group interviews with religious and nonreligious inmates, and 3 interviews with chaplains, administrators, and correctional officers. From a previously developed questionnaire Hunt and King 1. Clear and his colleagues found that religiousness was related both to improved adjustment and to fewer institutional infractions. After controlling for the influence of several key variables age, race, and self esteem, religion was no longer associated significantly with prison adjustment. However, the significant inverse relationship between religiousness and institutional infractions remained predictive and statistically significant. Both Johnson 1. 98. Clear et al. 1. 99.