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This year, Prison Fellowship (PF) celebrates its 30th anniversary. Created in 1976 by Charles Colson after his release from prison for Watergate-related crimes, the organization now operates in 114 countries and is the largest prison ministry in the world. Last year, 24,531 PF volunteers supported by 16,797 churches ministered in 1,604 prisons in the United States. PF's related ministries, like Justice Fellowship, Angel Tree, and the Wilberforce Forum, work for safer prison conditions, religious freedom, the well-being of prisoners' families, and other issues. CT associate editor Rob Moll spoke with Prison Fellowship president Mark Earley about developments in prison ministry and legal challenges to its prisoner release program.

What is different about incarceration for the prisoner today versus the prisoner of 30 years ago?
One of the most significant changes in the criminal justice system over the last 30 years is the growth of the number of people in prison. When Chuck Colson founded Prison Fellowship in the mid-'70s, there were a quarter of a million people in prisons in the United States. Today that figure is 2.3 million. There's been a ten-fold increase over the last 30 years in the prison population.

Recidivism rates are staggering. Two-thirds of inmates will be re-arrested within three years of their release. With those numbers and with the public policy changes over the last 20 years that have incarcerated more people, we've had a ballooning prison population.

How has Prison Fellowship addressed this rising prison population?
It has certainly been a growing mission field. Prison Fellowship's response, both in the United States and around the world, has been to seek to mobilize the church to believe what Jesus said in Matthew 25, that if you visit a prisoner, you visit him.

We help the church understand our responsibilities as congregations and as individuals to be involved in making disciples behind bars and [helping] those disciples [as they] come out of prison. We welcome them back into society, particularly those who have been changed by Christ and need a church home, a Bible study group, a mentor.

One program you run to prepare prisoners for release is the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, which recently lost a court battle. What does that program do and what court challenges are you facing?
Prison Fellowship launched the InnerChange Freedom Initiative ten years ago in Texas to try to deal with the problem of recidivism. The concept was based loosely on a program in Brazil in which the authorities pretty much turned the keys of a prison over to the local Catholic parish and said, "We can't do anything with this place; see if you can." The prison became a model of transformation.

Twelve years ago, folks from the Texas Department of Corrections and leaders at Prison Fellowship visited the Brazilian program. We decided to try something similar in Texas.

The InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a pre-release program that works with inmates for two years prior to their release and one year after their release. Two hundred men live together in a faith-based, holistic program. It's not only based on spiritual transformation. It also includes academic training, vocational training, life skills training, substance abuse treatment, and post-prison assistance with employment and getting rooted into a local church. Every prisoner is assigned a mentor who will work with them both in prison and when they leave the prison. The program is now in six states—Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Missouri.

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November 2006, Vol. 50, No. 11