This makes me ill

[ls317]

PENDLETON, Ind. -- Gov. Mitch Daniels visited a swelteringly hot cellblock today at the Correctional Industrial Facility to offer some encouragement to more than 100 inmates living in a dorm where new religious and character building programs are being used to rehabilitate prisoners.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050726/NEWS01/50726009

[mzteris]

1. too bad

that they didn't research this a bit more.

The recidivism rate for "faith based" prison programs is pretty high. There is one guy - I can't remember if's a Buddhist or a Yogi - something to do with meditation, I think - who has one of the best (meaning lowest) recidivism rates with prisoners who participate in his programs.

I'm sorry I don't have more details. It was a local NPR news segment probably about a year ago.....

[lvx35]

3. I think its a winning cause

If you can put a religious spin on it, maybe republicans will start to get the idea that you can rehabilitate people in prison for lower recidivism rates, and in the long term its a good idea.

[wli]

2. more prisons: Bushler's solution to the housing crisis

[havocmom]

5. And unemployment crisis.

And it gives corporations some really cheap labor.

[Divernan]

4. If all it takes are daily prayer circles, why spend $40,000/yr./inmate?

That's what it cost to keep them in jail ten years ago - don't know what the price tag is now. Let's just keep all these criminals in housing within a block of some church and let them hold down jobs during the day. These mandatory sentences so popular with the GOP have fueled a very lucrative privatised prison industry. Getting religion and attending church services have always been seen by inmates as great ways to con the parole board.

[wli]

6. part of it is where the 40K/yr goes

Obviously the inmates themselves aren't paid. Rather, the corporate cronies running the slave labor sweatshops do, and that's where they want the money to stay.

I also suspect the costs are inflated along the lines of military 300 dollar screwdrivers and so on.