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| Ind. Turns to Religion to Solve Prison Problems |
| By Marion Chronicle Tribune |
| Published: 04/07/2003 |
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Indiana's severe budget crunch has lawmakers and correctional officials alike considering an increase in the use of faith-based inmate programs to help curtail rising costs and prison population growth. 'These types of programs are certainly something I feel strongly about,' said state Rep. P. Eric Turner, R-Gas City, who serves on the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee. 'It's my belief that we can give these men and women all the education we want, but until we change their hearts, we're not really changing who they are as individuals.' Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have been pushing faith-based programs and other cost-cutting measures since the House passed a two-year budget bill earlier this month that denied the Indiana Department of Correction a 7.5-percent budget increase. Under the House bill, the DOC would not get $26 million needed to open and staff 1,576 new beds at the Miami and New Castle state prisons to meet projected increases in adult male felons. It also denies $12 million for prison space and oversight of 800 additional inmates the DOC took over in the past two years. To help offset the lack of funding, the plan would make more nonviolent inmates eligible for community transition programs sooner. It would also mandate that some -- unless judges refuse the transfers -- be sent to halfway houses and faith-based programs after serving some time in prison. Turner touts Prison Fellowship Ministries as the type of faith-based inmate program the state needs to carry out in its prison systems. The volunteer-based religious organization was founded in 1976 by Charles Colson, the former White House counsel who served seven months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. According to the group's Web site, Prison Fellowship recruits, trains and mobilizes volunteers from all backgrounds and denominations to participate in a variety of in-prison and community ministries. Programs include outreach to prisoners and ex-prisoner transitional care, assistance to families and children of prisoners and advocacy for criminal justice reform. 'You look at the results in other states that have Prison Fellowship programs, and they're just outstanding,' Turner said. The Web site offers statistics showing that faith-based prison programs lead to a significantly lower rate of re-arrest than vocation-based programs -- 16 percent versus 36 percent -- both compared with a national recidivism rate of nearly 70 percent. Grant County Jail senior chaplain Phil Leslie said a program like Prison Fellowship Ministries would be good for inmates here in Marion, noting many of the inmates who come to the prison are unchurched. 'These prisoners need God to help them turn their lives around and get to a better place,' he said. 'They've had bad experience in the past with pastors and their congregations, or drugs and alcohol have kept them away.' |
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