The intrusion of church behind bars. Case Study: faith-based prison programs in the U.S.

Résumé du document

The Evangelical leader Charles W. Olson had promoted his dream of a 'Christian prison' for years. After he was convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, this former aid of President Nixon was released from jail in 1975. He founded then, the Prison Fellowship Program in 1976. This program developed rapidly, on a national and international scale, supported by private donations. In the United-States, it provides Bible studies and seminars to more than 200,000 inmates (roughly 10% of the total prison population). But regular worships were not enough to fulfil Olson's will, he believed in, 'creating a prison environment that fosters respect for God's laws and the rights of others, and to encourage the spiritual and moral regeneration of prisoners'. At the Humanita prison in Brazil, Olson had the opportunity to discover what a private Christian charity prison is. Impressed by the atmosphere of peace in the facility, as well as the low rate of recidivism, Olson was even more eager to export this concept to the US. This intrusion of 'churches behind bars' is not a recent phenomenon in the US. Let's just remind the prison chaplaincies, the involvement of Quakers for ex-convicts rehabilitation or, as many studies show, the influence of religious principles in the conception of modern prisons. Clear goes as far as to say that "the history of incarceration is intimately intertwined with religious movements" . However, it seems that public authorities will to encourage the growing incursion of churches in prisons reveals a recent evolution, which becomes visible through the proliferation of faith-based programs. A faith-based prison program refers to a dorm or an entire prison managed by religious volunteers, aiming at reducing recidivism through 'spiritual transformation'. In fact, faith-based prison programs are overwhelmingly conducted by evangelical churches. Obviously, evangelical movement is diverse and divided. Volunteers come from a wide range of local churches, more or less institutionalized.

Extraits

[...] More importantly, the programs last beyond the incarceration. After their release, participants are given special help by a mentor and a local religious group for at least 6 months. To sum up, state deals with the captivity and the security of the bodies, churches target the soul and hope it will lead to self-control and self-discipline. When the state is no longer legally authorized to imprison the ex-convicts, churches keep looking after their protégés, as long as they can. The few scientist researches available on this question deal with the efficiency of the project and paradoxically, all of them emphasise the lack of evidence that recidivism is reduced. [...]

[...] Department of Justice justice.gov The White House white.house.gov Contents Introduction The Religious Premises of the Rehabilitative Mission Justify the Faith- Based Project ( Genesis and Evolution of the Rehabilitative Ideal ( Justifications of the Faith-based project The Collaboration of Church & State for Disciplining bodies and Salving Souls ( An Institutional Framework for a Civil Initiative ( The Modalities of the Cooperation Does It Overstep the Separation of Church & State? ( The Iowa Case: Is the State Financing “Religious Indoctrination”? ( Further Interrogations over Church & State Complicity Conclusion References FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISON, April p Quoted by LOCOMTE BFP pp. 533-532 CLEAR p MORRIS&ROTHMAN(ed.) p Op.cit. p Op.cit. p.112 Op. cit. p.161. Motto borrowed from British Prime Minister W.E.Gladstone Cf. Statistics of the US. [...]

[...] Setting a faith-based program is offering to religious groups a “captive audience”. A sociological study published by the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, about the “value of religion in prison”[27], shows that this audience is much more sensitive to proselytism than free individuals. “When the inmate embraces a religion while in prison, it is a public way of claiming to be a different person than the one who was sentenced to prison”. In the same voice, it seems that church and state tell delinquents and criminals that the means and the proof of their rehabilitation will be their spiritual transformation. [...]

[...] The Court decision reminds that the whole content of the program is religious. For example, “Substance Abuse” treatment class was “based on the premise that only Jesus-Christ is the cure”. More importantly, the Court shows that some inmates were dismissed because of a Fruit of the Spirit score”. In order to dismiss an inmate, an evaluation of the treatment team stated: “your conduct has been excellent according to security standards ( ) however, you are not displaying the growth needed to remain in the program. [...]

[...] State invites us to achieve their goal of reducing recidivism. Our methodology is spiritual transformation”[2]. The idea of changing the heart to reduce recidivism is not new: the past, ‘rehabilitation' was the term used to describe efforts to prepare inmates for release from prison, and the religious overtones of the term suggest that inmates could be changed morally after following a specific regimen”[3]. It seems that even the secular approach of rehabilitation in the U.S. has always been closely linked to its religious premises. [...]