Community and faith-based programs may be able to affect people who are incarcerated in a way that other prison-based programs do not. Such programming can help create the conditions for personal transformation, provide inspiration, and motivate individuals to succeed in all kinds of institutional programming. The example of others who have faced similar challenges and succeeded, the permission to talk about personal issues with and form attachments to a group of peers, a sense of religious faith, or other forms of inspiration can support an individual's mental resolve to complete a rigorous substance abuse treatment regimen, to get and maintain a job, or to peacefully manage family conflicts. For people in prison or jail who are parents, the desire to reunite with their children and to become better parents can also provide a compelling motive to change. ^[1]   Many programs that feature leadership or support from peers or volunteers focus on behavior, attitude, spirituality, or other factors that underlie more concrete steps (such as developing employment skills, learning to manage a mental illness, or taking parenting classes) to improving a person's chances of making a successful re-entry.

Example: Prison Meditation Project, Centerforce (CA)

Centerforce instructors (many of whom were themselves incarcerated or have family members who were incarcerated) teach inmates and prison custody staff spiritual development, stress reduction, and anger management through half-day, day and multiple-day programs. Program participants also learn "mindfulness meditation," which helps them work on topics including addiction, anger and violence, and forgiveness.

Example: Time to Change, Centerforce (CA)

Time to Change (TTC) is a coaching, training, and empowerment project that offers tools for rebuilding the lives of incarcerated individuals. TTC trains people in prison to become "co-active coaches" to their peers at San Quentin State Prison so that they can move out of patterns of victimization and into lives of choice, effectiveness, and fulfillment. Co-active coaching gives individuals in prison the skills they need to interact with their children, families, employers and communities in healthy, successful ways.

Finding and enhancing a person's intrinsic motivation is central to the success of any behavioral change programming. ^[2]   Program staff can seek to build relationships with participants while delivering services to ensure their participation and to improve the attitudes of participants toward positive programming. In jails or prisons, staff might work to establish relationships of trust through repeated and consistent contact with participants during programming, in informal and unstructured settings, or even during meals and medication distribution times. In addition, attitudinal changes can result from participation in curriculum-based peer support groups. ^[3]   A well-trained and committed core group of faith-based and/or secular volunteers can employ these approaches independently, or alongside prison-based staff, to enhance the effectiveness of prison- or jail-based programming.

Connecting people in prison or jail with community and faith-based programs prior to their release can help provide informal contact necessary to engaging prisoners and can offer support to them during the critical shift from the intense structure in prison to the lack of structure in the community.

Example: Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Project, Conquest Offender Reintegration Ministries (DC)

The Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Project is a structured mentor program that emphasizes accountability and responsibility. Mentors work with individuals while they are still incarcerated in order to help them construct a transition plan. After the individual is released, Conquest Offender Reintegration Ministries (CORM) volunteers meet several times with the individual to help him or her find housing, clothing, and employment.

As the CORM program demonstrates, the faith-based community can contribute to successful re-entry by continuing their longstanding practice of providing in-prison and postrelease mentors from the community. Mentors can develop relationships with prisoners that might help them to invest in treatment programs or see their behavior from a new perspective. In fact, mentoring programs have been shown to have a significant effect on recidivism reduction. ^[4]   To ensure that these relationships support the goals of the criminal justice system, mentors should receive appropriate training and fully understand their relationship to the corrections authorities as well as to the greater law enforcement community.

Example: Faith Community Partnership,

Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (DC)

Washington, DC's probation and parole administration office runs a faith-based mentoring program to provide support for people returning to live in the city after a period of incarceration. The program draws mentor volunteers from a diverse and growing list of over 40 religious institutions. Mentors are assigned to prisoners as they near their release dates, and many mentors establish relationships with individuals while they remain incarcerated. A video link allows people from Washington, DC who are housed in a federal prison in North Carolina to see and speak to their assigned mentors months or weeks before their actual release date.