The Report > Review of the Re-Entry Process > Prison and Jail > Behaviors and Attitudes

B: Prison and Jail

2: Services for the prisoner population have generally diminished over the past two decades; volunteers can provide some services to begin to fill the gap.

In this chapter:

  • Overview
  • Research Highlights:
  • Recommendations:

    • As more resources have gone into building new prison "beds" in recent years, less funding has been available for investing in services that reduce offender recidivism and thereby enhance public safety. [1]   Volunteers and mentors from the community can, to some degree, augment corrections staff in providing these services. For example, although there has not been a great deal of outcome research on the effects of faith-based programming, some studies have found that prisoners who participate in faith-based programming while incarcerated receive fewer disciplinary infractions and are less likely to be arrested in the first year after their release than those who do not participate in such programming. [2]   , [3]  

    1. Joan Petersilia, When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry (New York: Oxford University Press) ; James P. Lynch and William J. Sabol, Prisoner Reentry in Perspective (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute) .

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    2. Byron R. Johnson, David B. Larson, and Timothy Pitts, "Religious Programs, Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs," Justice Quarterly 14, no. 1 ; Florida Department of Corrections, Impact of Inmate Participation in Chaplainry Programs (Tallahassee: Florida Department of Corrections) .

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    3. Byron R. Johnson, David B. Larson, and Timothy Pitts, "Religious Programs, Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs," Justice Quarterly 14, no. 1 .

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