Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Sample Answer for Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses Included After Question

Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Description

Discussion Instructions

The thread must be 400–550 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 150 words. Each thread must support the student’s assertions with at least 3 citations in the current APA format, and each reply must be supported by at least 2 citations.

Topic: Faith-based Prison Programs

Thread: There are few or no laws to protect individuals from the stigma of prison and the discrimination they face. What are the advantages and disadvantages of faith-based prison reentry programs?

Replies: Provide a scriptural example in each reply and explain how it relates to your classmate’s thread. Two citations from the textbook and or scholarly resource may also be used.

Replies: Provide a scriptural example in each reply and explain how it relates to your classmate’s thread. Two citations from the textbook and or scholarly resource may also be used.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Title: Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Peer Response #1:

The use of faith-based ministry programs for the reintegration of offenders can be controversial because of society’s demand for the separation of church and state. However, despite this, we cannot forget the United State of America was founded on Christianity and can be seen in our Pledge of Allegiance still recited in many public schools as well as our United States Currency that state’s “In God We Trust.”

When we follow the separation of church and state, there is more flexibility amongst society with debates such as same-sex marriages and denial of birth-control to employees based on religious beliefs. Regardless of beliefs, it is obvious that many of the morals and ethics the law follows are very similar to the bible, so finding a strong difference between morality and politics is difficult (Hull & Edgell, 2021) as they overlap in so many ways.

Religion is often looked at traditionally as a personal experience that individuals often seek out when they are ready to find meaning in their life and make positive life changes. Research shows that people in prisons often face an array of feelings to include guilt and shame and are often ready to make a change in themselves with religion as their spiritual guide (Stansfield & Mowen, 2019).

Those who oppose prison ministries often cite it is simply unfair, as it can be viewed as pushing a specific religious belief on someone without any choice, feeling pressured to participate in order to receive special treatments or benefits (Hull & Edgell, 2021). As an example, in a recent article, a person of Jewish faith may feel they will receive extra assistance if they participate in a Christian based prison program (Hull & Edgell, 2021). Those who also oppose this type of religious framework in prisons will argue it is also unfair for the government to be participating with taxpayer monies assisting with any sort of religious funding, as it is a direct violation of church and state.

Regarding those who support the prison ministry programs, the argument is these programs focus more on morals and ensure the programs in place are there not for profit but for assistance for those who need it the most. If others do not intervene and assist, such as volunteers in Christian based prison programs, the offender may likely not get the help they need. Many advocates also look at this to at least try to better the person by giving them the choice to have an open-mind and better themselves (Hull & Edgell, 2021). Having inmates and parolees participate in an open volunteer program, that is not required, is why many of the Christian based ministry programs can be allowed as they are not mandated. Also, the faith-based programs are not pushing any specific religion but are mere Christian-based using the bible as an ethical guide.

Overall, it appears there is a direct link of lower recidivism when a faith-based program is involved with those who are incarcerated or on parole. Specifically, it does not appear if the person was a practicing Christian before entering that their religion alone lowered recidivism. Therefore, it can be concluded the programs offered in prisons by faith-based facilities, to include job re-entry programs and career enhancement skills, are imperative to help society by helping those who are reintegrating after being imprisoned (Stansfield & Mowen, 2019). Often when people are seeking religious guidance it is not necessarily for “finding God” but as a means of social and community-level support, working together with others.

It would only make sense for faith-based religious programs to be available as an option, as it is only realistic for a future employer to be hesitant to hire someone who was just incarcerated. As an example, if someone served time for too many thefts, how would an employer possibly feel comfortable trusting this person knowing they have a history of theft? It is religious organizations that can help with this dilemma and bring resources to those who have been imprisoned by incorporating an ethical guide specific to the bible and the word of God. A second chance is something a Christian truly supports, as it is the way God wants us to live . As stated in Micah 7:18, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy” (New International Version, 2011). When these faith-based organizations intervene and assist, there are more positive outcomes for everyone.

Peer Response #2:

It has been well researched that the integration of faith based organizations and encouraging offenders to look into their own spirituality and commit time and effort into exploring their own spirituality is an important intervention when it comes to rehabilitating the offender (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). It is important to look into interventions that work and research has strongly suggested that religious intervention leads to lower rearrest rates (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). Prison fellowship programs are widely accessible throughout the country and exist in almost every state and federal prison. This low cost, easily accessible intervention should be built upon to further the offender’s participation. Every week we have learned of one way to make rehabilitation more of a reality for the offender, however it is learning how to make these programs more appealing to encourage participation. It is important that these offenders be exposed to the word of God and understand his forgiveness and love before they are released into society. The use of a good mentor is one of the best ways to achieve this.

One study I found to be most interesting took place in Indiana through the use of 40 mentors who volunteered their time and energy to rehabilitating offenders through faith based programs. It accounted for the mentors’ motivations in effort to understand how to make faith based reintegration programs work. Stacer and Roberts(2018) wanted to understand how good mentors affect the way these offenders are rehabilitated. She identified that the mentors that were connected to churches who would be accepting of offenders in order to help set the offenders up with communities that would be understanding and not ostracize these individuals (Stacer & Roberts, 2018). Six of the mentors were offenders in the past, nine had a family member who was an offender, and the others had no connection to the criminal justice system (Stacer & Roberts, 2018). After six months of mentoring the mentors reported feelings of appreciation for their life, were more aware of the struggles offenders have with the rehabilitation process, and why they offend (Stacer, 2018). I felt this study was important because it showed that volunteering to work with former offenders is an important job and can be rewarding to communities.

Lopes Write Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses
Faith Based Prison Programs Discussion & Responses

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

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Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

  • Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
  • There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
  • Include in-text citations in your response
  • Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
  • Follow APA-7th edition
  • Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

  • A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
  • Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
  • Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
  • Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
  • Follow APA 7th edition
  • Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
  • Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
  • Here are some helpful links
  • Student paper example
  • Citing Sources
  • The Writing Center is a great resource