ABSTRACT
While criminologists have long sought to “reimagine the prison” in ways that might improve their performance, sadly very little actual progress has been made. Drawing on work from inside some of America’s largest and toughest prisons, we find an alternative model of “restorative corrections” utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates is fast disrupting traditional approaches to correctional programming. Brought about by budget crises and program failure, this chapter documents the return and rapid spread of volunteer-based desistance-focused programs in American maximum security prisons using religious volunteers. We also find that offender-led religious movements are offering new impetus for restructuring traditional approaches to correctional programs and rehabilitation. In sum, we are observing in real-time, an organic faith-based movement in prisons that is creating the very environments that help mitigate many challenges currently facing the field of corrections.
