Comments on: Atheists in Prison, What Are the Facts?

By: Chucky

Chucky — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:46:14 +0000

I also found some statistics about Scotland: http://thoughtfulfaith.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/a...

By: Sheldon Archer

Sheldon Archer — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:00:57 +0000

I have been in prison in the US and there is no doubt that I was outnumbered by believers. They had this little group in my area who had daily prayer meetings and tried to get me involved. I told them outright that I considered it a load of cobbler's. One day, the leader of the group came to me all excited and claimed that because of their prayers, one of their group was going to be released the next day. A few days later, the group didn't appear too happy or keen on praying. Turned out that the guy was going to be released because he had agreed to give evidence against the rest of the group with information that he had learned about them. Another guy accused of murder went to court happy as he claimed that Jesus was protecting him. When he returned, he told me that he had received a life sentence. "What about Jesus?" I asked him. "Oh yes," he replied. "I could have got five life sentences but thanks to him I only got one."

By: Michael Welch

Michael Welch — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:54:13 +0000

Well it could answer whether is religious conversion help in preventing recidivism or not. Further having accurate statistics can also help ensuring that all prisoners are given access to their appropriate religious or non religious rights. They maybe prisoners but everyone should be given moral guidance if they desire it. Human rights after all.

By: Techknoman

Techknoman — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:04:50 +0000

Stats could be skewed as it seems a lot of folks in desperate situations turn to a Higher Power for help and many that are Atheist out in the day to day world will get religion while incarcerated for various personal reasons or perhaps to get to go to church services on saturday sunday wednesday or whenever rather than sit in the cell.

By: Mws

Mws — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:19:26 +0000

They are gathering this information and making efforts to compile it into a comprehensive data base. More information can be found on the US department of justice site which i am attaching along with a data link to information that various states gather at this time. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/sfcis01.pdf
http://gb1.ojp.usdoj.gov/search?q=religious+affil...

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:37:56 +0000

As someone who spent 5 years in Florida's prison system, my first hand account is that there are very few atheists in prison per region, not to be compared with agnostics. The largest amount of inmates believe in a Christian God, but, contrary to what many Atheists believe , do not profess to be following God in any way, shape or form, but outwardly admit to be violating what they perceive to be God's laws. There are however, a very small amount of people, and I mean the once every few years nutcases, that explain their crimes as " God made me do it", or, "the devil made me do it". The smallest amount of people representing anything from the years I was in, were Jews. I met one, maybe two in 5 years and multiple prisons . Just offering a different view for you all to enjoy…from the inside looking out.

By: Adrian Hayter

Adrian Hayter — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:08:33 +0000

Yeah, I spent hours searching for different things on Google, and I couldn't find any official reports (other than the UK one I mentioned). It doesn't seem like the government (or any organization for that matter) keep track of atheists or religions in prison. Shame really, but I suspect it would end up simply reflecting the makeup of the general population anyway.

By: dvsrat

dvsrat — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:03:20 +0000

So I thought of searching Google by "prison organizations" by Google search. After a search for "atheist organizations in us prisons" the search revealed more than 92,000 hits. The fourth one being this one right here. There are formal groups for atheists in prison but no actual website. A search for "christian organizations in us prisons" pulled 2,400,000 hits. A website at the 6th hit. This would be "Nationwide Christian Prison Ministry — Bible Believers Fellowship, Inc."