atheist_in_foxhole

Quote:

WASHINGTON — Emboldened by the reported success of a Christian rehabilitation program in state prisons, the Bush administration is seeking ways to expand such programs to inmates in federal prisons. The head of the White House office for faith-based initiatives, Jim Towey, told reporters last week that President Bush had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to seek ways of expanding such programs to federal prisons. Federal prisons offer a faith-based program that is not tied to any one denomination and have not offered Christian-only programs. Bush's plans are causing alarm among advocates of church-state separation. "If the administration's idea is to provide programs where there is no non-Christian or nonreligious alternative, then we would strongly oppose it," said Marc Stern, assistant executive director of the American Jewish Congress. Towey's announcement came as Bush was meeting at the White House with Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, which operates an Evangelical Christian rehabilitation program for inmates in several states.

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Jewel

He must get those reports from the same source as that of Iraq's WMD's.

I suspect that Christain rehabilitation programs, like other faith based programs that the president is touting are not nearly as effective as they are widely assumed to be. I have yet to see any independant data indicating the effectiveness of these programs.

lisarea

Even assuming there were data showing that these things reduced recidivism among prisoners, you can hardly separate the effects of the religious portion of the program from the other aspects.

I've found precious little on this specific program, but from this article:

They LIVE IN A SEPARATE PRISON UNIT and participate in some kind of heavy-duty but vaguely described curriculum. And what do the post-release guidance and support consist of, exactly?

Another program that was being hawked around here recently turned out to be some big goodie package, complete with job couseling and assistance, as well as assistance with living arrangements, etc. Well, sure, I have no doubt that kind of stuff would reduce recidivism among prisoners.

So, even assuming that recidivism rates were lower with these programs than without, it says exactly squat about the effect of the actual religious content of the programs.

I am compelled to point out, in a small and shameful font, that--heh heh--the thread title says 'Bush pushing.' Heh heh.