Introduction xix
radicalization is greater in Middle East and Eu ro pean prisons than in U.S. pris-
ons due to political and social conditions, and offers suggestions for how
policy makers and prison officials may effectively address those issues.
In Chapter 15, Teman and Morag provide results from their study of a
Jewish religious rehabilitation program, which is called the Torah Rehabilita-
tion Program. The authors provide evidence of how adherence to Orthodox
Judaism may serve as a pathway to desistance and successful reentry for men
in Israeli prisons. In Chapter 16, we include the first English translation of an
important article by Becci, Rhazzali, and Schiavinato, which appeared origi-
nally in Critique Internationale. This study involved data collection from one
prison in Switzerland and one in Italy. The authors elaborate multiple ways
in which religion may become significant and meaningful for prisoners iden-
tifying as Orthodox, Muslim, or Evangelical. In Chapter 17, Kewley and col-
leagues conducted in-depth interviews with men incarcerated for sexual
crimes from one prison in England and Wales. The authors provide some pre-
liminary explanations for how those convicted of sexual crimes who have
engaged with religion or spirituality might use this affiliation to develop new
nonoffending narratives and identities, to improve social status, and to reduce
the effects of stigma.
The End of the Beginning
I am pleased and honored to serve as editor for this important project. This
volume is interdisciplinary, interfaith, and international in scope, and will
move the discussion of religion in prison away from popular discourse, advo-
cacy works, and media stories that prioritize emotion over empirical verifica-
tion and sensation over science. I am also pleased that, to our knowledge, this is
the first edited volume on the topic of religion in the prison context. I trust that
readers will learn a great deal from these chapters, and that they will take an
interest in creating and sustaining scientific research on religion in prison life.
Kent R. Kerley
University of Texas at Arlington
References
Brock, T. C. “Implications of Conversion and Magnitude of Cognitive Dissonance.”
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1 (1962): 198–203.
Dubler, Joshua. Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
Hallett, Michael, Joshua Hays, Byron R. Johnson, Sung Joon Jang, & Grant Duwe.
The Angola Prison Seminary: Effects of Faith-Based Ministry on Identity. New
York: Routledge, 2017.
