Giving voice to incarcerated men and women

Robin LaBarbera • March 31, 2023

"We cannot keep treating the millions of Americans affected by the criminal justice system as if their lives are meaningless. We cannot continue to leave them without a voice," said Mattie Haag, a Georgetown University student who advocates for criminal justice reform with Georgetown's Prisons and Justice Initiative.

In the post, written in 2017, Haag argued that America's incarceration rate and inhumane treatment of those in prisons and jails "has gone on for too long, affects too many people, and has left the largest blight on our recent history."

We have allowed this violation of human rights to persist, she said, "because it affects the most vulnerable members of society—those who have no voice and whom no lobby, politician, or powerful corporation care about."

It is also the intention of the American Prison Writing Archive at Hamilton College to give voice to those with lived experience and who know jails and prisons best by publishing the non-fiction writings of those currently incarcerated.

In 2022, the archives moved to Johns Hopkins, where they established a more comprehensive mission. Vesla Weaver, professor of political science and sociology, said that "Our broader ambition is that no person or organization that writes, teaches, or otherwise presumes to offer information about prisons or imprisoned people will be able to do so credibly without attending to the knowledge, insight, and experience of incarcerated people."

Giving voice to the incarcerated is the mission of several organizations, and it is one of my goals as well. It was the impetus behind my recent year-long research project. I interviewed 109 currently and formerly incarcerated men and women who participated in a theological education program behind bars, and I administered surveys to 157 individuals.

I published the pilot study recently in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and I have two more articles under peer review based on the complete project with interviews and surveys administered to currently and formerly incarcerated program participants.

With this research project, I explored the strengths and weaknesses of a prison-based theological education program called TUMI, based on the theory that providing currently incarcerated men and women with educational opportunities facilitates change and transforms lives.

The project's goal was to give voice to those with lived experience. Exploring the experience of those currently and formerly incarcerated is vital for understanding the lived experiences of individuals who participated in the faith-based program. Findings indicated that The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) was positively associated with positive changes in participants' thinking and behavior.

Results of the evaluation project suggested that more than purely an academic program, TUMI equips men and women for leadership and service, creates psychological well-being, promotes healthy thinking patterns, brings self-awareness and self-respect to its participants, enables positive interpersonal relationships inside and outside prison walls, and equips participants with problem-solving skills, impulse control, and ability to manage negative emotions.

My intention with this research project was not to highlight the abysmal conditions of America's prisons, although that is truly a worthy cause. Instead, I promote rehabilitation opportunities for those incarcerated (over punishment/retribution).

The chief aim of my research was to advocate for prison-based educational opportunities. This study sought to understand the impact of TUMI on participants, particularly on how they perceive overall program quality, areas for improvement, self-rated psychological well-being, and evaluation of prosocial thinking, behavior, and relationships—factors associated with reduced recidivism.

Regardless of the primary goal behind projects like The Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative, the American Prison Writing Archive, or research I've just completed, we share a common purpose to advocate for criminal justice reform.

I hope, along with my colleagues, to inform and inspire criminal justice change advocates that rehabilitation in prison is possible, giving voice to those who have experienced positive growth while incarcerated and after release.

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Incarcerated men in white uniforms stand in a circle with arms around each other's shoulders, heads

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When we think about prison education, we tend to ask one question: Does it reduce recidivism? It's a reasonable question, but it may be the wrong one. My recently published study in the Journal of Global Education and Research asked a different question: Does participating in a seminary-level theological education program actually change how people flourish while they're still incarcerated and after they come home? The answer, across 266 participants in six facilities and four states, was yes. Participants in The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) prison program showed higher scores on established well-being measures, healthier thinking patterns, stronger coping skills, and more positive relationships than comparison groups. And those gains didn't evaporate at the gate. Program graduates in reentry carried the markers of flourishing into post-release life. What flourishing actually looks like Flourishing isn't a soft concept. Drawing on Diener's Flourishing Scale, a validated instrument used in positive psychology research, the study measured constructs such as purpose, engagement, meaning, and positive relationships. These aren't warm feelings. They're measurable conditions that predict sustained behavior change. What the data showed was this: when incarcerated men and women are given access to rigorous academic study grounded in community and accountability, something shifts. Not just in what they know, but in who they are becoming. The research identified five mechanisms driving that transformation: deep educational engagement, authentic peer community, relational accountability, future-oriented purpose, and restorative action through mentorship. Each reinforces the others. Together, they create the conditions for the kind of change that lasts. Why this matters beyond the research Policymakers, funders, and program designers consistently reach for recidivism as their primary metric. But recidivism tells us something quite narrow — whether someone returned to prison within a given window. It tells us almost nothing about whether a person is living well, contributing to their community, or building a meaningful life. If we want justice systems that actually produce human flourishing, we need to measure what flourishing looks like. And we need to fund and design programs that create the conditions for it. Faith-based theological education in prison, when done with rigor and relational integrity, does that. The full peer-reviewed article, "Religious Higher Education in Prison in the United States: The Importance of Well-Being," is published in the Journal of Global Education and Research (Vol. 10, Issue 2, 2026). Read it here.

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