RFI co-founder and senior fellow, Byron Johnson, and Michael Hallett, professor of criminal justice at the University of North Florida, co-authored an article published recently in Public Discourse titled, “A Church Without Walls, Behind Walls: How Evangelicals Are Transforming American Prisons.”

U.S. correctional facilities confront rampant violence, mental illness, overcrowding, and suicide among inmates. Amid the brutal conditions in American prisons, Johnson and Hallett observe that religious programming “is now the dominant source of inmate rehabilitation,” and it ultimately “helps [prisoners] redefine and reclaim their lives.”

Johnson and Hallett address the evangelical response to mass incarceration, which has initiated this faith-based prison reform movement. Faith-motivated volunteers have assisted in salvaging collegiate education for prisoners to reduce violence and make prison less punitive. Johnson and Hallett note:

In what is quickly becoming a nationwide model, new public–private partnerships between prison wardens, religious educators, and faith-motivated volunteers are now operating in twenty-seven states and over seventy U.S. maximum-security prisons nationwide.

These extensive, innovative, and hugely successful evangelical efforts in America’s prisons uplift the lives of inmates with social capital otherwise inaccessible to them. Decades of criminological research document the salutary benefits of religious programming for prisoners and prisons, such as reducing social isolation and shame among prisoners, and offering emotional and network pathways that support “re-biographing” and fresh starts. Small-group prayer in prison, for example, has been shown to be “highly prosocial and transformative in practice.” 

The “Wounded Healer” model of ministry—in which previously convicted citizens help offenders to reform—has been particularly effective and an important part of the success of evangelical efforts. Johnson and Hallett write:

Former addicts are often viewed by those in recovery as the most effective drug treatment counselors—not because they have academic credentials in addiction therapy, but because they possess direct experience overcoming the challenges of addiction.

Importantly, the benefits of peer counseling are bi-directional, bearing fruit both for those receiving help and for those offering it. Indeed, mentors often view themselves as the real beneficiaries in their relationships with offenders. 

Johnson and Hallett then go on to explain how perhaps “one of the best examples of a church without walls is the church behind prison walls,” which might even lead to a new, prison-led religious awakening. They conclude: 

The search for healing, meaning, and companionship is common to us all … Could faith-based approaches to prison problems offer lessons for society? Remarkably, so many prisoners—even those who are serving life sentences—have told us that the next Great Awakening will come from prisons. This prison-led awakening would reclaim a core Christian principle: serving others is the best means of serving God and oneself.

Read the full article: “A Church Without Walls, Behind Walls: How Evangelicals Are Transforming American Prisons.”