Correctional facilities must grapple with unprecedented levels of overcrowding, violence, and suicide, as well as rampant mental illness among inmates. The tightening of budgets and the resulting loss of vocational, educational, and treatment programs pose additional difficulties. In the midst of these struggles, faith-based approaches, led by faith-motivated volunteers and prisoners, are providing the most innovative, holistic, and effective programs available in correctional facilities today.
Active Christians exhibit greater current life satisfaction and are more likely to report that they are thriving. In addition, active Christians have higher levels of subjective well-being throughout the entire business cycle—not just in booms, but in the busts as well. Our results suggest that religion and religious communities will continue to play a driving role in helping people cope with change by keeping their eyes pointed towards the eternal even as storms surge around them.
Senior citizens are less likely to support same-sex marriage than younger Americans, but that does not mean that they are anti-gay.
Religious conversions can be pivotal in turning an inmate away from a life of crime, but only if the process of spiritual transformation continues outside the prison walls.
Prejudices of secular and religious groups alike stand in the way of successful crime reduction efforts.