New research says education changes lives.
Can a prison-based theological education program prepare men and women for ministry leadership, increase the health and well-being of incarcerated individuals, improve prison culture, and assist in reentry and recidivism prevention? The purpose of this evaluation project is to provide an answer to this question.
The problem with incarceration
Approximately 2.2 million men and women are held in prisons and jails across the United States on any given day, and more than 95% of these men and women will eventually be released back to their communities: That’s more than 626,000 people who are released from state and federal prisons annually, and more than 11 million people cycle through local jails each year.
Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to repeat or reoffend after serving their sentence. In the U.S., nearly 44% of those released will return to prison before the first year out of prison, about 68% will be arrested for a new crime within three years, and 77% will be arrested within five years (World Population Review, 2022).
