Religious Faith in Correctional Contexts

Book excerpt: Kent Kerley explores the issue of religion in prison, offering a rich portrait of religious practices and their impacts. Kerley shows how offenders of all stripes use faith to adapt and survive in difficult institutional settings. He sheds light on the complex processes of religious conversion, discusses the development of tools for ¿staying straight¿ in and after prison, and reveals surprising differences between the experiences of men and women. Moving to the realm of policy, Kerley¿s analysis illuminates the specific mechanisms by which faith-based prison programming can have a positive impact.