Apocalypse Here - Interview with Douglas Campbell on Paul and Prisons

I apologize for the hastily constructed question. I was cleaning the house and wanted to get a question in.

The point of the question was to highlight that the criminal justice system in the US is mired with religious language/ideology. I think we can do better, by appealing to secular humanism, not better Jesus (though I often fail to see the distinction between better Jesus and humanism). For example, while chaplains are supposed to be open to all religions, I don't think it's true in practice. 71% of prison chaplains are Protestants, and only 5% are non-Christian (and 90% of chaplains believe in "preserving traditional beliefs and practices"; Pew Research). There's immense pressure to convert, throughout the system, because I think people honestly believe that rehabilitation is done (and perhaps only) through Jesus (or God). For example, there's an experiment that showed that the likelihood of being paroled increases if you convert to Christianity or Islam (Miller et al. 2012; Legal and Criminological Psychology), which implies that conversion is a signal for rehabilitation. Then you have coercive religious parole programs (Grudzina 2016; Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology), with some cases leading to parolees being sent back to prison for not attending worship services (Janny v. Gamez et al.). I simply don't see how the system is open to all religions (or lack thereof), nor do I see that as a good thing. Looking at Scandinavian prison systems, which are incredibly secular (and not funded by the state), I think the solution is to be more open, not better Jesus.

Sorry for the rambling. I did enjoy the stream, and I think it's great that you're highlighting an important topic (1% of the US population is in prison)!

Are there any organizations you could recommend to start getting involved with prison ministry, or finding a mentor?