Religion behind Bars: Faith-Based Progammes in the Rehabilitation of Offenders in the Medium B Westville Correctional Service, Durban

There is adequate evidence to suggest that religion is an important factor in maintaining social order and control. Almost all societies support and respect religious practices as a fundamental human right. A rapid decline in religious conformity is perceived to erode the moral fabric of society and hence perceive its decline to contribute to social degeneration leaving society in a state of disarray. Deviation from religious norms and values at an individual level is known to result in anomic behavior resulting in coming into conflict with the law. On the contrary religious fundamentalism is also known to be contributing to hostility, violence, lawlessness, harmful behavior and social instability. It is in this context that this article reviews religious practices and beliefs amongst offenders and its role in rehabilitating their deviant behavior in the South African context. There is a paucity of research between the religion-rehabilitation nexus, in hypothesizing the role religion plays in promoting pro-social behavior. The services of chaplains have become an important facet of the rehabilitation programme with offenders based on the belief that repentance can provide salvation from one’s deviant behavior. This study highlights contrary to the assertion that individuals who come into conflict with the law have low levels of religiosity, they in fact do practice their religion. The study provides very little support to the notion that correctional centres inspired by faith based programmes indeed impacts on prosocial behavior as offenders engage with their respective religious belief systems as individuals. This finding refutes the assertions contained in the literature study that correctional centres do in fact impact on their spirituality due to the fact that before incarceration they practiced some form of religion.