| The Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign offers media tools and resources to support informed discussion, decision making, and action about solution-based reentry programs that foster public safety and support healthy communities. We encourage you to review the diverse materials and consider how you may be able to use them effectively. |
| The Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign acts as a catalyst to encourage solution-based reentry activities. Review this chronicle of public television and community events/actions to gain ideas on what may work in your arena. |
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PRISON FELLOWSHIP
MINISTRIES-INNERCHANGE FREEDOM INITIATIVE
Program Description Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM), founded by Chuck Colson in 1976, is a nonprofit organization that relies on volunteers. The ministry is centered around the idea that crime results from moral and spiritual problems that must have moral and spiritual solutions. Prison Fellowship ministers to prisoners, former prisoners, families of prisoners, and victims of crime, utilizing the talents and skills of 40,000 volunteers nationwide in nearly 1,700 prisons throughout the United States. The ministry to former prisoners includes several different aftercare programs that help the church reach out to individuals in transition from prison to home. The Life Series Plan is made up of three 10-hour courses that assist prisoners in developing a set of skills to help them make a successful transition to freedom. These skills include dealing with finances, finding and maintaining steady employment, establishing a social support network, and establishing ties with a local church. Former offenders also learn spiritual principles to help them avoid unproductive habits. PFM also runs the Winning at Work Series, which consists of two eight-hour courses: HIRE (Here is a Responsible Employee) and HOPE (Helping Ourselves Prepare for Employment). These classes are focused on assisting individuals in recognizing the importance of the work ethic, including being accountable, honest, respectful, and dependable in a work environment. Basic skills such as resume writing, interviewing, and filling out job applications are also taught. The InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) is a faith-based prison program based on the Association for Protection and Assistance of the Condemned (APAC) program that was founded in Brazil in 1973. IFI programming uses a transformational model that promotes self-discovery through faith. The four-phase program begins about 18 to 24 months before release then continues for six to 12 months after release. Phase One concentrates on spirituality, education, work, and personal growth. Phase Two focuses on preparing the offender through prison work programs. Phase Three involves the transition to a halfway house facility; and Phase Four focuses on reintegration, family, and the church. In April 1997, the state of Texas asked the Prison Fellowship Ministries to establish the IFI program at a prison facility near Houston , Texas . The Carol Vance Unit offers IFI programming for former offenders who are planning to return to Harris County or nearby counties. Prison Fellowship Ministries also established a program for inmates at the Newton Correctional facility in Iowa . Once inmates at this facility complete the program, they are transferred to a halfway house. Another facility is the Winfield Correctional Center located in Winfield , Kansas , at which programming is offered to minimum security inmates. Before release and after completion of the program, inmates are transferred to a halfway house in Wichita . In 2002, Minnesota began operating as the fourth program at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility. Program Goals PFM aims to "equip and assist the Church in its ministry to prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims, and their families and in its promotion of biblical standards of justice in the criminal justice system." IFI's goals are to aid the transformation of prisoners through faith as well as through providing a prison environment that promotes respect and spiritual renewal of prisoners so they will lead productive lives. Networking,
Partnering, and Collaboration Outcomes According to the program, about 220 IFI participants have been released from prison after completing at least 16 months in the program-161 in Texas, 34 in Iowa, and 25 in Kansas. An estimated 75 percent of these 220 men are gainfully employed. Only 16 (7 percent) have been returned to prison. The University of Pennsylvania recently released preliminary findings from a study of the Texas InnerChange Freedom Initiative. According to the study, graduates of the program were 50 percent less likely to be rearrested than a matched comparison group. Specifically, the rate of re-arrest for the Texas IFI participants was 17.3 percent compared with 35 percent for their counterparts who did not participate. IFI graduates were also 60 percent less likely to be reincarcerated. Eight percent of IFI graduates were returned to prison, compared with 20.3 percent of the non-participants. Additional Reading • Johnson, B.R and D. Larson 2003) "The InnerChange Freedom Initiative: A Preliminary Evaluation of a Faith-Based Prison Program. " Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania.
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