Religious help for prisoners scrapped

Last updated at 22:00 20 July 2006


A religious help scheme for prisoners has been scrapped in case it offends those of other faiths and homosexuals.

Organisers of the InnerChange course at Dartmoor jail were told their traditional message was discriminatory and did not conform to 'diversity' policy.

The decision to cancel the course, in which volunteers help prisoners prepare for life outside prison, caused outrage.

A spokesman for the independent think tank Civitas said: 'This is absolutely scandalous.

The Government is always saying we need to reform prisoners, and then when someone does something that actually works, it gets stopped.'

The InnerChange programme was modelled on a successful scheme in U.S. jails.

Prisoners who convert to Christianity are expected to live disciplined lives, and are monitored after release to ensure they do not revert to crime.

The programme, which received no state funding, was introduced by a Dartmoor chaplain last year, with the backing of the prison's then-governor Claudia Sturt.

At a recent review, prison officers said it was having a positive effect on previously difficult prisoners.

And one InnerChange volunteer said the scheme had transformed the lives of the 38 men who had taken part.

But a report by a Prison Service psychologist complained that the programme was not based on scientific research because it assumed that 'the root of offending is in individual sin'.

It said InnerChange promoted the unique virtue of heterosexual marriage, which meant it was 'discriminatory' against homosexuality.

The decision to ban the scheme comes less than a year after governors were told to put paganism on an equal footing with the major faiths by allowing altars, incense and the wearing of robes and religious jewellery in prison.

It is understood that no prisoner complained of being offended by the InnerChange programme.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: 'As this scheme was voluntary, we see no problem at all.

'If it meant prisoners were being helped to reform using Christian values, then that has to be a good thing - for them and for society as a whole.'

Lady Georgie Wates, of the Prison Fellowship, said: 'I am amazed and bitterly disappointed to see a programme which is having such an impact being stopped.'

The director general of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley, defended the decision to end the course, and insisted it 'did not fail to gain approval only because of matters of diversity'.

A Home Office spokesman said last night: 'Any programme that seeks primarily to change attitudes is required to meet the quality-assurance standards set out by the Prison Service.'

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