Finding Freedom in Confinement: The Role of Religion in Prison Life

by Kent R. Kerley

Publisher:

Praeger

, 2018

What is the nature and impact of faith and religion in prison? This book summarizes contemporary and cutting-edge research on religion in correctional contexts, enabling a scientific understanding of how prisoners use faith in their everyday lives.

Religion long has been a tool for correctional treatment. In the United States, religion was the primary treatment modality in the first prisons. Only since the 1980s, however, have social scientists begun to study the nature, extent, practice, and impact of faith and faith-based prison programs. Bringing together the knowledge of scholars from around the world, this single-volume book offers readers a science- and research-based understanding of how prisoners use faith in everyday life, examining the role of religion in prison/correctional contexts from a variety of interdisciplinary and international viewpoints.

By considering the perspectives of professionals actually working in corrections or prison settings as well as those of scholars studying religion and/or criminal justice, readers of Finding Freedom in Confinement: The Role of Religion in Prison Life can gain insight into the most contemporary research on religion in correctional contexts. The book contains data-driven, conceptual, and policy-oriented essays that cover major religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam within correctional environments. It also addresses subject matter such as the roles of prison chaplains and correctional officers and the relationships between religion and common aspects of prison life, such as drug abuse, gangs, violence, prisoner identity, rights of prisoners, and rehabilitation.

Features

Presents an international scope that covers a diversity of faith traditions
Comprises contributions from leading scholars who incorporate various research methodologies, such as surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and content analysis into their writings
Moves the discussion of religion in prison away from popular discourse, advocacy works, and media stories that prioritize emotion and sensationalism over empirical verification

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Kent R. Kerley
Part One Perspectives on Religion in Prison Settings
Chapter 1 Faith and Service: Pathways to Identity Transformation and Correctional Reform
Byron R. Johnson, Grant Duwe, Michael Hallett, Joshua Hays, Sung Joon Jang, Matthew T. Lee, Maria E. Pagano, and Stephen G. Post
Chapter 2 Religion and Desistance: Working with Sexual and Violent Offenders
Christian Perrin, Nicholas Blagden, Belinda Winder, and Christine Norman
Chapter 3 Religious Rites and Rights of Prisoners in the United States
Janet Moreno and Kent R. Kerley
Chapter 4 "We Serve Forgotten Men": Structural Charity versus Religious Freedom in Serving Ex-Offenders
Michael Hallett and Megan R. Bookstaver
Chapter 5 A Theological Critique of the "Correctional" System
Andrew Skotnicki
Part Two Religion in Prison in the United States
Chapter 6 Religion and Prison Violence
Benjamin Meade and Riane M. Bolin
Chapter 7 The Effects of Religion on the Prisonization of Incarcerated Juveniles in Faith-Based Facilities
Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, Jodi Lane, and Kristen Benedini
Chapter 8 Religion Postprison: Roles Faith Played in Colson Scholars' Convict-to-Collegian Transition
Judith A. Leary
Chapter 9 Prison, Religion, and Conversion: The Prisoner's Narrative Experience
Malcolm L. Rigsby
Chapter 10 Reading Scripture in Exile: Favorite Scriptures among Maximum-Security Inmates Participating in Prison Seminary Programs
Joshua Hays
Chapter 11 Backgrounds and Motivations of Prison Chaplains
Andrew S. Denney
Chapter 12 Restrictions on Inmate Freedom of Religious Practice: A National and International Perspective
Jason Jolicoeur and Erin Grant
Part Three Religion in Prison outside the United States
Chapter 13 Faith Provision, Institutional Power, and Meaning among Muslim Prisoners in Two English High-Security Prisons
Ryan J. Williams and Alison Liebling
Chapter 14 Breaking the Prison-Jihadism Pipeline: Prison and Religious Extremism in the War on Terror
Gabriel Rubin
Chapter 15 Orthodox Judaism as a Pathway to Desistance: A Study of Religion and Reentry in Israeli Prisons
Elly Teman and Michal Morag
Chapter 16 Religious Diversity in Swiss and Italian Prisons: Combining Institutional and Inmate Perspectives
Irene Becci, Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali, and Valentina Schiavinato
Chapter 17 Incarcerated Child Sexual Offenders and the Reinvention of Self through Religious and Spiritual Affiliation
Stephanie Kewley, Michael Larkin, Leigh Harkins, and Anthony Beech
Part Four Conclusion
Chapter 18 Assessing the Past, Present, and Future of Research on Religion in Prison
Kent R. Kerley
About the Editor and Contributors
Index

Product Details

• Title: Finding Freedom in Confinement: The Role of Religion in Prison Life
• Author: Kent R. Kerley
• Publisher: Praeger
• Print Publication Date: 2018
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBN: 9798216084648
• Resource ID: LLS:9798216084648
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-12T13:09:18Z

About the Author

Kent R. Kerley, PhD, is professor and chair in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at The University of Texas at Arlington.