Faith-Based Programs and Offender Rehabilitation in Colombian Prisons

• In Event: Programming for People for Prison

Abstract

We have launched a 2-year, quasi-experimental study to assess the effectiveness of six faith-based, offender rehabilitation programs operating in eight prisons, located in or near four cities in Colombia (Bogota, Medellín, Monteria, and Barranquilla). For the experimental group, a self-administered survey is being administered with program-participating prisoners twice for each program they are completing, one before (pretest) and another after participation (posttest). For the control group, a survey is also administered twice with prisoners who have not participated in any of the six programs with two surveys being administered about 3 months apart. This longitudinal study is conducted to examine changes in key outcomes of the programs over time. Specifically, we hypothesize that: (1) program participation increases religiosity, which contributes to rehabilitation, conceptualized in terms of self-identity (identity transformation), existential belief (a sense of meaning and purpose in life), and character (virtue development) and (2) the program-generated rehabilitation results in positive changes in emotional well-being and behaviors among program participants compared to non-participants. To test these hypotheses, we will apply structural equational modeling to analyze the survey data combined with official data from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario, INPEC), Colombia’s national correctional agency.

Authors

• Sung Joon Jang, Baylor University

• Byron R. Johnson, Baylor University