Faith offers promise for prisons
By Hugh MacMillan
Publication Date: 09/21/2009, Tallahassee DemocratHorizon Communities in Prisons is a key part of the solution to the very difficult, expensive and dangerous problem of prisons in Florida and our nation.
Horizon, a tax-exempt corporation, was established in 2001 as an outgrowth of Kairos Prison Ministry. Its mission is "to prepare prisoners to live responsibly with others." Improving and building character reduces the incidence of recidivism, and Horizon helps accomplish this with an emphasis on personal and family responsibility, citizenship, education and employability.
Horizon's faith- and character-based programs are fully multifaith, do not proselytize, and operate entirely within state and federal laws. No complaint has ever been filed in the 10 years of Horizon's operation.
The key to its success is the establishment and support for positive inmate community inside the prison. There are many subcultures inside prisons, but not many are positive. Horizon seeks to be a collaborating partner with the prison, helping to establish and sustain community links that further public safety.
In Florida, Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma, Horizon faith and character residential dorm programs are established and now operate successfully. The initial Horizon dorm, established at Tomoka Correctional Institute in Daytona Beach in 1999, evolved out of a pilot program and $100,000, two-year grant from The Ounce of Prevention Foundation. This first faith- and character-based residential dorm established inside a maximum security prison has operated successfully now for 10 years.
In 2001, the Florida Legislature provided startup funding and statutory authorization for expansion of the pilot program, and Horizon dorm programs now operate successfully in at Tomoka CI and Lowell CI (with a program started in 2009).
In 2006, Gov. Jeb Bush directed that Wakulla Correctional Institution, where a Horizon dorm was established in 2002, be converted to a faith- and character-based prison, the first maximum security prison with that mission.
The mission at the Wakulla CI faith and character facility is for the entire prison to demonstrate that a maximum security prison can combine professional, high-security management and a positive living and learning prison environment.
At Wakulla, Horizon volunteers work with a dedicated community of approximately 30 inmate "servant leaders" with job assignments to help create and deliver programs by inmates and for inmates. These "servant leaders" make up the informal Horizon inmate community at Wakulla CI.
Examples of Horizon courses and programs include mentoring, anger management, life skills, communications skills, 12-step alcohol and drug programs, parenting, fatherhood and family relations, basic adult education and GED preparation, employment preparation, environmental services, faith-specific studies, inter-faith awareness, manhood, meditation, computer literacy, personal finances and investment, credit and debt management, time management, small-business concepts, life mapping, a chess program and Kairos Outside for families.
Strategic assumptions, based on experience and seven-year average results from Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma and Florida, show an 85-percent drop in disciplinary infractions (safer prisons), a 60-percent increase in job performance and a 50-percent targeted reduction in recidivism rates, and 50 percent of inmates experience restored family relationships.
Research by The Urban Institute and the Council of State Governments as well as a Report of the Reentry Policy Council (2006) shows a dangerous and unacceptable pattern:
- 65 percent to 75 percent of released prisoners re-offend.
- Most released prisoners return to their prior geographic area of interest.
- Released prisoners account for 90 percent of the crime in each state.
The sustained community volunteer link of Horizon is important because it addresses basic human issues while offenders are incarcerated, where these issues can and must be addressed successfully. Results are safer prisons where inmates live and corrections staff, officers and volunteers serve every day, sometimes for many years; safer communities where released prisoners come better prepared to live responsibly with others; and tax savings from success by corrections systems that actually correct.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hugh MacMillan is a Kairos and Horizon prison volunteer and former board chair of Horizon. He was legislative liaison for Gov. Askew (1971-77) and was on Harry Singletary's executive staff at the Department of Corrections (1995-2000). A retired attorney, he works as a public interest lobbyist, primarily in criminal justice and education in Tallahassee. Contact him at hughmacmillan@earthlink.net.
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