Handcuffing prisons

A court decision could put an end to a successful rehab program that is cutting the rate of repeat offenses—all because it lacks “adequate safeguards” against establishing religion | Joel Belz

NEWTON, Iowa— Terry Mapes is a man modest enough to accept help when someone offers. At the Newton Correctional Facility in central Iowa, he knows from hands-on experience just how needy America's prison community has become. Several years ago when he was a young prison guard, three enraged inmates beat up Mapes and left him for dead.

So when Mapes became warden here in 2001 and discovered that Prison Fellowship—the largest prison ministry in the world—had joined Iowa's Department of Corrections (DOC) in shaping a program to help inmates prepare for life outside prison, he did not hesitate to endorse the effort.

Mapes isn't sorry for that decision. The program that resulted, he thinks, has done extraordinary good. It led to a meeting between Mapes and one of his attackers, where Mapes had the opportunity to extend personal forgiveness.

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August 12, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 31

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