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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
 Posted - 02/22/2010 : 18:47:05
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It seems that Chuck Colson has been lying when it comes to the effectiveness of his prison's ministries, which he was in turn using to "prove" the existence of his god.
The only thing the god of tolerance hates more than Christians making truth-claims is Christians proving them. Beginning with a facility in Houston, Prison Fellowship now runs residential programs, "spiritual boot camps," within prisons in locations scattered across the country. This is called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative - or IFI. We have, since the beginning, contended that these demonstrate the truth of the Gospel in transforming lives. In 2003, the first peer-reviewed academic studies validated our claims. University of Pennsylvania researchers reported that IFI graduates had an 8 percent re-incarceration rate versus 20 percent in a comparable control group (and 67 percent nationally). Prison officials were astounded.
It was the first empirical evidence that this faith-based approach to correction works - in other words, that the Gospel is true. |
Check out page 5 here.
| (4.) Considering all participants, including those inmates who did and did not complete all phases of the program, 36.2% of IFI participants were arrested compared to 35% of the matched group during the two-year tracking period. Among the total number of IFI participants, 24.3% were incarcerated compared to 20.3% of the comparison group during the two-year post-release period. |
Note that they got those numbers only by including everyone who ever got into the IFI program in the first place. If one just looks at the "graduates" then the numbers will naturally favour the IFI people.
To see what the blogger who first posted this means: look at their point 2. To qualify as a "graduate" of their program, one has to have held a job for at least 3 straight months after prison. Of course if one holds a job, there's getting income! That alone will cut down on the motives for crime, will it not? So right there, there's some screening out. If one of their IFI guys can't hold a job after jail, then they're not included among the "graduate" IFI numbers.
Of course the very fact that a bunch of people dropped out or got tossed out of the IFI program in the first place should tell them something right there!
Though that doesn't seem to sink in with the people who made that report in the first place.
When you read the report, it seems like they seem to think that it works, even though the flaws are exposed within that very same report.
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>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
Edited by - the_ignored on 02/22/2010 18:49:58
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 20:36:06 [Permalink]
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So, actually, Colson's program creates worse criminals.
In the ISI program as I read it, a prisoner after release must get a job and hold it for 3 months, complete 6 months of "aftercare," and do "biblical education, work, and community service" for 16 months.
All that is required just to be considered and counted as a "graduate" and be included in Colson's stacked stats, ex-cons must obviously not get rearrested in the 16 month period -- or they would likely be fired from their jobs, tossed out of church, or otherwise arbitrarily rejected by the program.
I'm surprised Colson doesn't just increase that screening period to 2 years in order to get 0% recidivism. From Colson's IFI PDF:17.3% of IFI program graduates and 35% of the matched comparison group were arrested during the
two-year post-release period. A program graduate is someone who completes not only the in-prison phases
of IFI dealing with biblical education, work, and community service (usually lasting 16 months), but also
includes an aftercare phase (usually lasting 6 months) in which the participant must hold a job and have
been an active church member for 3 consecutive months following release from prison. |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/22/2010 21:02:07 |
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Prison Ministries .. lying by omission?
