Posted: September 1st, 2022

The Role of Religion in Modern Jails

The Role of Religion in Modern Jails
Throughout the history of corrections, religion has been used to help impact positive morals on offenders. Churches and religious institutions have always been on the front line to provide asylum for accused and convicted persons. In fact, prisons and jails were initially build to punish offenders for the crimes committed and ultimately rehabilitate them and prevent recidivism by isolating them from the general population. Chaplains and other religious leaders would provide religious and spiritual education and counselling to the inmates.
Today, faith-based programs still play an integral role in jails and prisons. It enables inmates to either take up or continue with their religious lifestyles after incarceration. Pastors, Imams, rabbis and other religious leaders are often being used to provide education, cancelling, advice, and spiritual support to inmates. The main goal of imprisonment is to rehabilitate and prevent inmates from relapsing into their criminal activities. Religious-based programs are believed to have a significant impact on converting inmates from their criminal ways. The role of religion in modern correctional facilities cannot be ignored. Prisons still provide opportunities to the inmates to participate and engage in different religious services such as worship groups, bible study and other faith-based programs of their choice. Chaplains and other religious volunteers still frequent prisons to educate, provide counselling and spiritual support to the inmates.
Currently, while many inmates prefer practising individual-based religion, there are still dozens of religious programs that work in cooperation with correctional facilities. In the United States, there are thousands of faith-based support programs that provide an array of services to people in jails and prisons. However, most of these programs are private-based and provide services without any link or help from the government. This creates a disorganized system, particularly when coordinating and aligning the inmate’s needs with the form of care that would be most effective for them.
The impact of religion on jails ad prisons remains unclear. Surprisingly, there are minimal studies that have been done to draw reliable conclusions. Lack of reliable research on religion and its impact on inmates is somewhat shocking, given the historical influence of religion on correctional facilities. However, several reliable studies suggest religion and participation in religious programs may be valuable to inmates. Studies indicate that inmates that participate in the religious programs have significantly lower chances of re-offending. The studies also show that participating in more intensive programs lower chances of recidivism even more when compared to those who participate in less intensive programs.

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