Confronting Christian Penal Charity: Neoliberalism and the Rebirth of Religious Penitentiaries

This article addresses the rise of Christian seminary programs in US prisons as a function of penal regime change in late-modern corrections. The article documents the neoliberal roots of faith-based programming in US prisons, featuring increased reliance upon religious volunteerism as a structural...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hallett, Michael A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: Social justice
Year: 2018, Volume: 45, Issue: 1, Pages: 99-119
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Christian Education
Church work with prisoners
Corrections (Criminal justice administration)
Education of prisoners
History
Neoliberalism
Prisons > United States
Rehabilitation of criminals
Theological seminaries
Description
Summary:This article addresses the rise of Christian seminary programs in US prisons as a function of penal regime change in late-modern corrections. The article documents the neoliberal roots of faith-based programming in US prisons, featuring increased reliance upon religious volunteerism as a structural charity in correctional budgeting. Federal revocation of Pell Grant eligibility for convicted felons in 1994 has produced a de facto monopoly of Christian educators promulgating an exclusively sectarian framing of offender rehabilitation. Although faith-based programming can offer effective counternarratives to punitive justice that dramatically improve the well-being of prisoners who freely volunteer, overreliance upon Christian instruction in US prisons fosters a coercively sectarian framing of rehabilitation and a newly privatized mechanism for inmate education.