Guide for Leading Christian Worship Services

DOWNLOAD Whether you have been asked to plan a Christian worship service in a youth facility, jail or prison this guide is created to address matters that worship planners face in the distinct nature of correctional settings. Worship as a term used in this guide...

Indicators of Mental Health Problems of Inmates

DOWNLOAD About 1 in 7 state and federal prisoners and 1 in 4 jail inmates self-reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD) in the 30 days prior to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2011-12 National Inmate Survey. In comparison,...

JAIL TOOLKIT

GUIDE FOR STARTING A JAIL MINISTRY Jail ministry is unique based on the needs in the community and the resources of the church. Thisguide provides you with basic steps to identify where, with whom and how your Church can best serve in jailministry....

Letter Writing Guidelines by Lennie Spitale

DOWNLOAD The following are suggested guidelines for writing letters to inmates. They are generally agreed upon by most prison ministers to be the safest and kindest approach to this worthwhile venture and are based upon many years of collective experience. Men and...

Racial Divides in Spiritual Practices

DOWNLOAD Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Progress is slow on racial reconciliation in this country, particularly given recent events. But why do lingering...

RAND Correctional Education Summary

DOWNLOAD Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons; within three years of release, 40 percent will have committed new crimes or violated the terms of their release and be reincarcerated. Although a number of factors impede...

Sentencing Policies in Other Countries

DOWNLOAD Other nations protect public safety without imprisoning as large a percentage of their population, handle law-breaking behavior in ways less reliant on incarceration, and have different approaches to addressing complex social issues. This factsheet, derived...

State of the Bible Survey 2019

DOWNLOAD This report contains the findings from a nationwide study commissioned by the American Bible Society and conducted by Barna Group. Two research methodologies were used for the study; one included 1,001 telephone interviews with adults 18 and older in the...

Still Life

DOWNLOAD The number of people serving life sentences in U.S. prisons is at an all-time high. Nearly 162,000 people are serving a life sentence – one of every nine people in prison. An additional 44,311 individuals are serving “virtual life” sentences of 50 years or...

The Growth of Rural Jails

DOWNLOAD As concern in the United States has grown over the number of people behind bars, policymakers and the public are turning their attention to addressing the decades-long growth in the number of people held in the country’s 3,000 locally-run jails. With local...

Women in Jails: Overlooked in Era of Reform

DOWNLOAD Despite recent calls to reform the criminal justice system in light of increasing numbers of incarcerated people, one trend has received little attention: the dramatic rise in the number of women being held in local jails. Since 1970, the number of women in...