Deflecting Privatization: The Incorporation of Faith-based Organizations into Criminal Justice Reform

• In Event: 1580 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Using Religion: Practical Uses of Religious Resources

Abstract

This paper draws from a social movements perspective to examine how 1990s-era probation privatization contests reshaped the penal field in ways which led CBOs and FBOs to become more deeply incorporated in criminal justice reform efforts. As neoliberal think-tanks aggressively promoted transferring probation activities to for-profit firms, the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA)—a Council of State Governments (CSG)-related organization representing probation officers—fended off such threats by building public-private partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs). The CSG and APPA’s efforts still sought to preserve the influence of elite civic organizations in criminal justice reform; in fact, APPA leaders authored a text that offered strategies for preventing CBOs and FBOs from becoming empowered actors in local criminal justice reform efforts. However, FBOs did not react to the new and quickly changing penal landscape in entirely predictable ways. Once seated at the table of criminal justice reform, faith leaders participated in both pastoral and insurgent displays of prophetic redemption.

Authors

• Edward Orozco Flores, University of California-Merced

• Jennifer Elena Cossyleon, Loyola University