NPR aired a story on Morning Edition today that discussed an innovative program in Oregon which trains female prison inmates to become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses once they leave prison. The women at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility are learning skills that they can use once they are released, giving them the opportunity to add to the communities to which they return. The program was started by MercyCorps Northwest, and only three percent of inmates who have completed the program have reoffended, whereas the national recidivism rate for released inmates is approximately fifty percent. The story can be found here on the website for Morning Edition.People of faith often find themselves asking questions with a similar theme: Should our nations' prisons focus on punitive action or reformative justice? How can persons of faith support initiatives that reform our prison systems?
These are important questions with complex answers. What are the possibilities?
Here are a few stories which focus on prisons around the country. Let's bring our questions, our hopes, and our faith perspectives to the table as we read these stories:
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