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By Pat Nolan|Published Date: June 25, 2009
This year, 630,000 inmates will be released from America's prisons. Next year an even larger number will be released, with more the following year and each year thereafter into the foreseeable future. These prisoners aren't being released early. They are men and women who have completed their sentences, and they will be returning to neighborhoods across the country.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police recently released a statement that recognizes the challenge that returning offenders present to police agencies, "On the face of it, law enforcement would not appear to be a group that would take a primary policy or programmatic interest in recidivism. But when the level of repeat 'clients' is taken into consideration, this issue becomes of primary concern to all federal, state, county, local and Tribal agencies in the United States. Reducing recidivism can only improve community safety and decrease overall crime and victimization levels."
What has been done to prepare these offenders to live healthy, productive, law-abiding lives when they return? What kind of neighbors will they be? Every police department in the country has a stake in seeing that these men and women make a safe and successful return to free society.
Failed Tactics
If things continue as they are, two-thirds of these released offenders will re-offend and return to the system, victimizing more innocents in the process. Over the last thirty years, the rate of rearrest has hovered stubbornly around 67 percent as both the liberals and then conservatives tried their solutions. Both have failed to break the cycle of crime. Whether the therapeutic model or the tough-on-crime philosophy was guiding crime policy, the results have remained the same: Two out of every three former prisoners are rearrested within three years of their release. Eli Lehrer of the American Enterprise Institute commented in the Weekly Standard that even tough prisons have been ineffective in reducing recidivism. "All around America, just released thugs step off of Greyhound buses and pick up their criminal careers where they left off."
Margaret Talbot wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, "The prisoners getting out are more often more violent or antisocial than they were before." As a result our communities are plagued with more crime, more victims, and more costly prisons. If a hospital released patients that were still sick two-thirds of the time, we would find a new hospital. Our current criminal justice system fails us two-thirds of the time. It's time we found a new system for dealing with criminals.
That is exactly what Prison Fellowship set out to do when it developed the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), the values-based corrections program introduced in Texas in 1997 with the support of then-Governor George W. Bush, and now operating in Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota.
What is IFI?
IFI is a partnership between the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Prison Fellowship with the goal of slowing down recidivism-that revolving door that leads out of our prisons and then right back in again. IFI supports prison inmates through their spiritual and moral transformation beginning while incarcerated and continuing after release.
Offenders are immersed daily in values-based teachings grounded in a biblical perspective and are required to work and improve their education. The second half of the program includes six months of community service outside the prison. While they are in prison they are paired with a mentor from a local church who works with them to understand their responsibilities to their spouses, children, and employers. The program continues after the inmate is released with continued guidance from a mentor along with support from a local church. Participation is voluntary, and there is no time off or other incentives to participate.
Proven Results
IFI-Texas was the subject of a recent study by Dr. Byron Johnson of the University of Pennsylvania. The study, "The InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Preliminary Evaluation of a Faith-Based Program," contains wonderful news for those of us who believe that inmates can turn their lives around if they are spiritually transformed on the "inside."
The study followed IFI graduates for two years after their release and compared them to inmates with similar backgrounds and offenses who had not participated in IFI. The study found that:
- InnerChange Freedom Initiative graduates were 50 percent less likely to be rearrested. The two-year post-release rearrest rate among InnerChange Freedom Initiative program graduates in Texas is 17.3 percent, compared with 35 percent of the matched comparison group.
- InnerChange Freedom Initiative graduates were 60 percent less likely to be re-incarcerated. The two year post-release reincarceration rate among InnerChange Freedom Initiative program graduates in Texas is 8 percent, compared with 20.3 percent of the matched comparison group.
Imagine the impact on crime in our communities if a substantial number of inmates completed such a program before being released. "All but one thousand of Texas's 143,000 prisoners have an eventual release date," noted Fred Becker, the first warden at IFI-Texas. "It's up to us to determine what kind of shape they come back to the world in. If we can stop only 10 percent of those inmates from re-offending, it will mean thousands of citizens who never become victims of crime. InnerChange is a step in that direction."
You don't have to be a believer to appreciate the benefits that IFI is providing to the community: fewer victims, safer neighborhoods, reduced court cases, and fewer prisoners. In an editorial titled "Jesus Saves," the Wall Street Journal wrote, " . . . critics of the faith-based approach may claim that their only issue is with religion. But if these results are any clue, increasingly the argument against such programs requires turning a blind eye to science." As Charles Colson noted, the positive outcomes that result from faith can no longer be denied.
Mentors Are Key to Success
Dr. Johnson emphasized that mentors were "critical" to the impressive results. The support and accountability provided by mentors often make the difference between a successful return to society and re-offending. The mentors are there to walk the inmates out of the gate, introduce them to their congregation, and help them find housing and jobs.
As these offenders make the difficult transition back into the community, they need a relationship with a loving, moral adult. Moving from the very structured environment of prison, in which they had virtually no control over any aspect of their lives, their return to their community presents them with a myriad of options and temptations. Such basic decisions as where to sleep, where to seek employment, and with whom to associate confront them the minute they hit the street. They need the love, advice, and encouragement of a mentor. And they need someone to hold them accountable.
The numbers bear stark witness to the importance of inmates maintaining their relationships with their mentors: Only inmates who completed the entire program (including continuing their work with their mentors after release) were less likely to recidivate. Those who left the program early had recidivism rates that were virtually the same as those who did not participate in the program at all. Mere participation in a portion of IFI is insufficient to transform most inmates.
The most effective mentoring relationships begin while the offender is in prison, where the mentor and offender will have developed a rapport. IFI recruits members of local churches to give at least one hour a week to mentor the IFI inmates, both while they are still incarcerated and after they return to their community. In his interviews with the IFI participants, Dr. Johnson found that the mentors' weekly visits were very important to the inmates, not only for the things discussed, but also for the love conveyed. By faithfully keeping their commitment to the weekly mentoring sessions, the mentors showed love and a commitment to the inmates that many had never experienced before in their lives. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "To help someone, you must first love them, and they must know that you love them."
Where to Find Mentors
These offenders need good influences in their lives. They need moral, loving adults who hold them accountable. They need relationships not programs. President Bush has often said, government can't love someone-only people can do that. Where can we find people willing to develop a mentoring relationship with inmates? Our experience is that the vast majority of prison volunteers and mentors come from local churches. Police Departments can play a crucial role in encouraging churches in their jurisdiction to provide mentors for returning inmates. The greater the number of loving, moral people we can pack around these returning offenders, the greater the chance that they will safely and successfully make the transition back to the community.
One judge emphasized the importance of being able to rely on the churches to help inmates, "I can 'pitch' offenders toward the Church every day of the year, but to make it work I need 'catchers' to receive them and work with them." With the increasing numbers of inmates being released from our prisons, it is critical that we "meet them at the Greyhound bus."
Implications for Society
Of course, for a mentor to make a difference, the offender's attitudes must be changed. Crime is at its root a moral as well as a legal problem. The offender made bad moral choices, and their hearts must be transformed if they are to lead crime-free lives. From his interviews with the IFI participants, Dr. Johnson identified five "themes" that are associated with successful rehabilitation, each one of them a part of the IFI teaching:
- a willingness to condemn their previous behavior;
- recognition that life is a "work in progress" and that spiritual growth is a lifelong process;
- replacing the values of prison society with something more worthwhile;
- developing a sense of hope and purpose; and
- sensing the need to give back to society.
The world has largely given up on changing the behavior of offenders. The Church, on the other hand, believes in redemption. The Church reaches out in love, embracing the offender while asking him to repent of his sin and to turn his life over to God. The Church also knows that it is important to hold offenders accountable for the harm they have done and that they must attempt to make things right with their victims. That is how we can break the cycle of crime, and that is why Dr. Johnson's findings of the effectiveness of IFI hold such promise for our nation.
A Presidential Embrace
President Bush realizes this, and that is why he convened a meeting in the Roosevelt Room to discuss the study with Attorney General Ashcroft, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Jim Towey, the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Charles Colson, Mark Earley, and three IFI graduates.
The president and other administration officials expressed excitement about Dr. Johnson's study. "Faith-based initiatives are about transforming lives," Towey said. "This study indicates early signs of making headway toward reducing recidivism. All of society benefits when prison inmates are transformed."
However, the president's actions as he walked into the room spoke more loudly than any words spoken that day. Walking past Colson, Earley, and members of his cabinet and staff, the president made a beeline to Robert Sutton, an IFI graduate and a convicted murderer. Their meeting in the Roosevelt Room wasn't their first. They had met before in 1997 at the dedication of IFI-Texas, where the governor put his arm around Sutton while the inmate choir sang Amazing Grace. The Houston Chronicle had run the picture of the governor on the front page with a caption noting that he was embracing a murderer.
Since then, Sutton has graduated from IFI and has made a successful transition to the free world, leading Bible studies for young people in his church. Now, President Bush and Sutton were together again, this time in the White House rather than a prison. Both men beamed as they embraced-the president and a murderer, celebrating the changes that faith and a loving church brought about in their lives.
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