Opening the doors to hire prisoners Teen Challenge opened its doors to hire known criminals (through a federally funded re-entry employment program) from among those who converted to Christianity. Teen Challenge had many centers in Texas and Florida. In 1997, Texas became the first state to use the Faith-based effort, run by Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, InnerChange. Support from the state governance under then-Gov. G.W. Bush in Texas and Gov. Jeb Bush in Florida were vital to the rapid growth of the enterprises. Hire of former prisoners into mentor positions within the rehab facilities was an experiment that lacked adequate controls and supervision because government regulation had been stopped.
The Assemblies of God prison chaplains often have dual responsibilities and may also be paid prison staff with fairly unlimited access to prisoners. With Teen Challenge staff paid from federal re-entry prison funds, the Teen Challenge facilities had low staff overhead. This financially beneficial arrangement permitted rapid expansion of the Teen Challenge ministries program. The aggressive outreach of the Assemblies of God-Teen Challenge program was also funded by start up grants made possible through collaboration with the Faith-based and Community Initiative grant program and other linked programs.
Prisoners are paroled from prison to Faith-based outreach at Teen Challenge centers where they receive counseling, study the Bible and attend church. These “Christian” criminals, who had spent hard prison time, had criminal associates/connections, and were not always under adequate supervision of their parole officers. Teen Challenge as an employer would vouch for the employed prisoners and make allowances for their non-compliant conduct in order to keep them “on the path”. The parolees, in re-entry employment at Teen Challenge, were tasked to do missionary “outreach” to teens on the streets of New England. Protected by their employer (Teen Challenge) and poorly supervised by officials from the prison system, these “Christian” employees openly did street “interventions”. But Teen Challenge facilities had long been suspected of abusive practices and the continuing stream of complaints that surfaced did not get adequate attention by state or federal authorities.
An even more ominous complication was yet to be recognized. The reports of abuse were made to properly identified authority channels, but persons who could block their progress and review had been strategically placed in critical positions. An example is seen in the case of recently convicted, former Office of Special Counsel director, Scott Bloch. Bloch was in charge of reviewing all federal whistleblower complaints in 2001, and could thus stop a sensitive investigation. The case is discussed in greater depth shortly.
Under the Second Chance Act, the Labor and Justice departments announced prisoner re-entry grants totaling nearly $3 million to criminal justice agencies for Faith-based and community groups who provide ex-prisoners with employment services. Twenty-three agencies in 22 states and the District of Columbia were awarded grants of $130,434 each. States were: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In Ohio, Governor Ted Strickland signed into law an act to encourage Faith-based groups and volunteers to provide re-entry services in that state. In Alabama, Governor Bob Riley appointed an advisory council of government and religious leaders to develop a statewide prisoner re-entry strategy. Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction faced $74 million in budget cuts in 2008. Boston, Minneapolis and Durham County, NC, all came up with their own prisoner re-entry programs that engage Faith-based groups. Budget pressures are pushing for reductions in prison populations. At least eight states are reported to be considering proposals to permit early release of prisoners, including California, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Vermont.
Reference: Wright, David. 2009. Taking Stock: The Bush Faith-Based Initiative and What Lies Ahead, June 2009, ReligionAndSocialPolicy.org,
http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/ ... 060809.pdf
