Reading the bible gets you out of jail

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Randomly reading stuff about American prison education programs (I'm researching paid work in this area) on the internet and came across this list of programs in the Indiana prison
https://www.in.gov/idoc/find-a-facility ... /programs/

f you are interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities, please visit our Volunteer page. For more information on these programs and/or a complete listing of the programs the IDOC offers, please visit the IDOC Programs page.
Work Release Program
Reentry Education Program
Work Crew Program
Employment Readiness Class
Life Skills Seminar
Money Smart
Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University – self study
Partners in Parenting
Men’s Fraternity
Substance Abuse Treatment
Alcoholics Anonymous
Relapse and Prevention for Reentry
Celebrate Recovery
Self-Study – Life Skill Programs
Bible Study
Motivation for Change

The one I highlighted stuck me as weird, why is bible studies included?. Why is bible studies a educational or self-help program? I thought prisons were secular institutions. It struck my curiosity and I googled why this would be useful to a prisoner?.

Here's the first thing that came up
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/indiana-d ... dy-course/

Wow! so a person who killed 3 children and showed no remorse for her actions was released early from Indiana Corrections because she attended bible class??

Is this a conflict of interest in terms of the separation of church and state given religion should not dictate how the law is applied to individual people?
Weird what you find randomly on the internet.

reading the bible is a good path to losing faith as well, idk it is what happened to me. I actually read the bible and now Iam a satanist.

Yeah, imagine attending bible class and turning into Dylan Roof, that would be enough to scrap that program.

Its symbolic of God's grace and how believing in him sets you free

Cyberdad. I don't think you have ever met changed people? How vastly their lives change when they accept Jesus Christ? I have seen it on many, many occasions.

Not long before the lockdown we had a local man here who was totally changed and he shared with us his story of how in prison for murder (He had been in prison many times in the past before that for lesser things) how Jesus changed him and there was such a change that the other prisoners and guards who knew him saw the change and wanted to know what happened. About three years later (And it came as a surprize to him and he wanted to stay in prison as he ended up finding such good favour with the prison staff and he aas going round preaching to other prisoners...). He was released. He asked why he was being released and he was told "There is just no reason to hold you anymore. You are a completely changed man".

And this man now is one of the gentliest men I have met. Yet in the past he was a hard man who one would not want to go near. Such a change!

This is just ONE man. There have been countless people change when they have a life changing experience with Jesus Christ. My Dad is one who had such an experience and after he died a school friend came up here after loosing touch with him a few years after they had left school and when we told him when he had a miraculous conversion and what had happened the elderly man who was in school with him kept repeating his name with his mouth open and he said "I would not have ever said that would happen to "(His name)".

But GOD...

Indiana is on the northern edge of the "Bible Belt".  In some areas, and in some institutions, "Christians" receive more trust and respect than non-"Christians". who are often marginalized and shunned in those same areas and institutions.

Likely, some bureaucrat with a Bible fixation decided to include "Bible Study" as a means of rehabilitation -- all an inmate has to do is attend Bible Study, memorize Bible passages, and put on a "Come to Jesus" act to be paroled.

I have to wonder what the recidivism rates are for each of the early-release programs.  Does anyone have THAT information?

I lived in Indiana for two years, and got out as soon as I found a better job.

It may be a little more, oh, what's a word, nuanced, than that,
and this may give insight in to the logic employed,
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/cr ... chool-kids
"
Shepherd previously shaved six months off her sentence by completing a faith-based course designed to reform criminal lifestyles, behavior and attitudes, Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs said.
"
and, https://www.wrtv.com/news/heres-why-aly ... rom-prison

"“Alyssa and people like her, 90 percent of the people who go to (Department of Correction), are going to come home. They are going to come back to their communities,” said Bernice Corley, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. “What’s important is we as taxpayers have done what we can to help them come back into their communities and be successful.”

Indiana law gives most convicted criminals an opportunity to cut anywhere from six months to two years off their sentences by taking classes while in prison. Criminals convicted of violent crimes including kidnapping, child molesting and rape are not eligible for the education credit.

Earning a GED reduces a sentence by six months; graduating high school while in prison cuts a year off the sentence.

Prisoners can earn a year off their sentence by earning an associate degree and two-years off with a bachelor’s degree.

Completing vocational and technical training programs can cut a year off the sentence.

They can also earn credit by completing courses aimed at ending substance abuse and teaching various life skills.

"It's so important to encourage people to be constructive with their time and better themselves," Corely said, "so that when they come in their communities, they can continue their penance for what they did through being constructive citizens."

The education incentives are spelled out in state law and administered by the Department of Correction.

“Our office and the judge have no ability to affect that,” Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs told WRTV Friday."

Still curious about the thing I found, https://www.in.gov/idoc/about-idoc/idoc ... erve-plus/
"
Faith & Character Based Initiatives

The Indiana Department of Correction is always aggressively seeking new ways to empower offenders with the necessary tools to become more productive members of society upon re-entry. To meet this goal, the Department created the Purposeful Living Units Serve (PLUS) program. In 2005, the Department implemented three pilot facilities to start the program. Today, the PLUS program continues in the following facilities:

Branchville Correctional Facility
Correctional Industrial Facility
Heritage Trail Correctional Facility
Indiana State Prison
Indiana Women’s Prison
Madison Correctional Facility
Miami Correctional Facility
New Castle Correctional Facility
Pendleton Correctional Facility
Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility
Plainfield Correctional Facility
Putnamville Correctional Facility
Rockville Correctional Facility
Wabash Valley Correctional Facility
Westville Correctional Facility

PLUS is a faith and character-based re-entry initiative. Purposeful Living Units Serve offers participants alternatives for rehabilitation. Whether participants choose to learn from character-based materials or faith-based materials, the living units are geared towards teaching core fundamental values that challenge and focus on positive reinforcement through learned behavior. The emphasis of this voluntary initiative focuses on strengthening spiritual, moral, and character development as well as life-skills. This is the basis towards re-entry into the community.

To learn more about our faith and character-based re-entry initiative, please download our brochures below.
"
Curiously, one of those 2 PDF states, "Offenders volunteer to take part in the 16 month program; they receive no time cuts for their efforts."

So, is it the same program, a different program, have things changed since that PDF was posted?

Look at were disregarding the Bible has taken the nation in the last 50 years.

Prisons are overloaded. It's a credit system. She would have gotten the same credits for completing "Money Smart".

I'm Catholic and I don't read Scripture.

This is the home state of Mike Pence, so it isn't surprising.

So a person who killed three children...was released early because she attended a "money smart" class???

Would THAT sound any less ridiculous?

Exactly. The real reason she got out early is because prisons are overcrowded. She's still under ankle bracelet home incarceration for another three years.

based on the fantastic prison podcast ear hustle I've noticed a lot of incarcerated people replace whatever vice got them incarcerated with extremely zealous Christianity/Islam

What if the inmate isn't christian? doesn't it mean the list of options they have available to them is < than that for a christian inmate? sounds like a breach of the US constitution