How to Reduce Prison Populations

About a week ago came news that America's incarceration rate is at an all-time high, with nearly 1% of Americans in prison.

This figure represents both good news and bad news.

It's bad because that's nearly 1% of all Americans whose life is in serious trouble, and is unable to enjoy the freedoms and blessings of this great nation--and bad for the taxpayers who must pay to incarcerate them.

It's good because as the prison population has gone up in recent years, the crime rate has correspondingly gone down. That means people and property are much safer than they used to be.

As positive as the good news is, it comes at a high price, which I've already touched on in the "bad news." It costs more and more each year to incarcerate so many prisoners, and over time we must build more and more facilities to house all these prisoners.

But a large prison problem is indicative of a larger problem, one we as a secularist-leaning society have become reluctant to deal with: morality.

Sometimes we are tempted to think that morality is "pie in the sky" stuff that has no bearing on "the real world." We consider morality the stuff of church sermons and stuffed shirts. Actually, the opposite is true. Our world, and especially a free society, will not function properly without it.

George Washington may very well have feared what we are seeing today when he said in his Farewell Address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports

In case you think such a connection was a fluke, why else would John Adams have said

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Adams was clearly stating that a free people cannot remain free without morality and religion. He also said

It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

Even Benjamin Franklin, one of the least overtly religious of the Founders, said

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

Given this wisdom and foresight from those who founded our country, it should be at least mildly surprising that we have achieved such a dubious milestone in our incarceration rate. Yet here we are. How do we fix it?

We could keep going, building more prisons and locking more people up. Or we could turn a blind eye, let people go with softer sentences, not lock them up in the first place, or maybe not even arrest them. Or we could return to the virtue that helped create the most free nation on earth.

Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship ministry is one powerful tool we could make more use of to reduce prison populations.

Prison Fellowship has for years been making a difference in people's lives, helping them understand the need for moral behavior and make real change in their lives.

An article today from the Christian Post reports:

Programs like Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) work with inmates two years before they are released and one year after, helping them to develop a "moral compass so they can live law-abiding lives when they are released," said Nolan. The spiritual and moral formation part of the program is based on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.

"Character is what you do when no one is looking, and we try to help them make moral choices in all circumstances," he said.

A study of the IFI program in Texas found that only 8 percent of graduates were reincarcerated after two years – a remarkable success rate compared to the national reincarceration rate.

The national reincarceration rate is about 50%, so Prison Fellowship is having tremendous success.

That's because Prison Fellowship programs don't tell prisoners "be good" and give them no tools or training on how to do that. IFI gives them the support they need while in prison to make changes, and helps with support once they get out of prison so that they can make virtuous living a permanent lifestyle.

And since IFI is a voluntary faith-based program, participants have an opportunity to enter a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ--the best possible way to get on the road to living a moral life. This change is so revolutionary that Christ described it as being "born again."

Of course some object to allowing such a thing in prison, despite the record incarceration rate. Their misplaced belief in the myth of "separation of church and state" prevents them from allowing or embracing the one thing that can make a difference in our society.

If we look back 50 years or more, our crime and incarceration rates were only a fraction of what they are now. At that time, we were also a society that embraced Christian values, going all the way back to the Founders and colonists of America.

Would it be so terrible to return out our roots, our heritage, and once again embrace true religion and morality? Or would we rather suffer more crime and pay to build more and more prisons?