Three Decades Later, Prison Fellowship Still Making A Difference
By: Allie Martin
The president of the world’s largest prison ministry says after more than 30 years, statistics show that faith-based programs can drastically reduce the recidivism rate for inmates.
In the United States, there are nearly seven-million men and women under correctional supervision, which includes incarceration, probation, or parole. Each year, approximately 700,000 offenders are released back into society. Studies show that 67 percent of those will be re-arrested within three years, and more than half will return to prison.
But Prison Fellowship, founded in 1976 by former Nixon aide Chuck Colson, has made a marked impact throughout the nation, having established programs in prisons in all 50 states as well as in 110 countries worldwide. For example, an evaluation of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a voluntary faith-based program, found that of those who completed the program in Texas prisons, only 17 percent returned to prison after two years, compared to a 35 percent return rate for inmates who were eligible but did not take part.
Prison Fellowship president Mark Earley says many inmates find Christ in prison. “For many, many people in prison, they’ve come to the end of the line,” Earley shares. “They are facing in a very stark way that they, on their own, cannot help themselves; they can’t dig themselves out of the pit they have dug — and they turn to Jesus Christ. And it is real salvation, it is real transformation.”
Statistics show that taxpayers spend an average of $20,000 per year to incarcerate one person, regardless of the crime committed.
(Source: OneNewsNow.com)
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