The Dramatic and Underrepresented Effects of Religion on Prisoners (and on Us)

Professor Byron Johnson joins us for a conversation on a core piece of the human experience that many of us hold dear but has been neglected in studies of criminology and other fields for decades: the influence of religion on human behavior. In this episode, he covers a brief history of our nation’s understanding of the purpose of prisons, the role of faith-based programs in prisons in making prisoners more “pro-social,” the work of Prison Fellowship International in aiding the rehabilitation of prisoners, why people commit crime and why people follow laws, i.e. don’t commit crime, are both important, and how cancel culture is harming our ability to forgive one another, and the dramatic effects of faith-based programs led by inmates in rehabilitating their fellow inmates such as those in an Angola Prison. Byron Johnson is a Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute and a Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice.  Recent publications have examined the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry. Prison Fellowship International: https://pfi.org/ The Prisoner’s Journey: https://pfi.org/what-we-do/hope-for-prisoners/the-prisoners-journey/ Prison Fellowship: https://www.prisonfellowship.org/