A systematic review located four impact evaluations of a faith-based prison program (“Prison Fellowship”). All four studies included reported promising results in terms of the potential impact on recidivism reduction (re-detainments and/or re-arrests). Three of those studies found statistically significant effects on recidivism reduction, and one found no overall effects, but found that program involvement was an important moderator of the observed effects (the most active inmates in the Bible study groups were significantly less likely to recidivate in the one-year follow-up period) [1].
The Crime Solutions platform presents the results of a meta-analysis that evaluated the impact of 15 religious programs in prison. This practice is considered to have no effect in terms of reducing institutional misconduct and is ineffective to reduce antisocial attitudes [2]. There are no studies on this topic in the Crime Reduction Toolkit platform.