Religious Groups and Prison Reform

Report Outline
Religious Group's Involvement
Overcrowding: Target of Reform
Alternatives to Incarceration
Special Focus

Religious Group's Involvement

Recent Activism in Prison Reform Efforts

One of the most vicious prison riots in U.S. history occurred a little over two years ago at the New Mexico State Prison at Santa Fe. The New Mexico riot drew national attention to the conditions said to be responsible for the uprising—prison overcrowding and understaffing of poorly trained and poorly paid guards. After the uprising the state hired a new prison director, instituted new training programs for guards and allocated money for more guard positions and higher salaries as well as for more prison space. However, many prison officials in New Mexico and elsewhere believe that overcrowding in American jails and prisons will get much worse unless the criminal justice system eases its over-reliance on incarceration and adopts more alternative work and treatment programs.

Their concern is shared by the growing number of religious groups involved in prison reform. Many of these groups, representing different faiths, share a belief in the importance of spiritual rehabilitation, a philosophy stated in 1870 by the American Prison Association (now called the American Correctional Association): “We have a profound conviction of the inefficiency of all measures of reformation except as such are based on religion.”

Religious groups currently active inside prisons—particularly those representing the Muslim faith and Christian Evangelicalism—are in fact changing some prisoners' lives by helping them to see themselves as contributing members of a community rather than as outcasts. Outside prison walls, religious groups are involved in efforts to liberate prisoners from what is portrayed as a basically unjust and inhumane criminal justice system that encourages rather than deters criminal behavior. Some religious groups advocate a moratorium on all prison construction and support the use of alternative means of punishment.