Religious Programs Calm Prison Once Described As 'Evil'

June 9, 2006 — -- The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola was once considered the bloodiest prison in America. But that reputation is changing, thanks to an activist who is working to make prison conditions more humane.

"When I first came here I couldn't even stay at home a night. I was here every night for blood and murder," said prison warden Burl Cain.

The born-again Christian is credited with taking a horrific, hopeless place -- where 90 percent of the inmates are serving life sentences for violent crimes -- and transforming it with what he calls "moral rehabilitation."

"I can teach you to read and write, skills and a trade but without a moral component, I just make a smarter criminal," Cain said. "We have to have morality to rehabilitate. That's the only rehabilitation."

He achieved his goals by adding six churches and a gospel radio station known as the "incarceration station" to the prison.

And the results include better behavior among inmates, such as Donald Bierman, who said before he found God, he and others lived by their own rules.

"This place was evil. It was just an evil place," said Bierman, who was convicted of murder.

Since Cain arrived at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1995, the level of violence has dropped in half. He said if this approach can work here, it can work anywhere.

Across the country, other Christians are setting up programs behind bars, but some critics question using one religion, which may not appeal to all the inmates.

"If a prison decides to treat religious inmates … any better than the general population it raises a constitutional red flag," said the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

Cain responded, saying this is not about Christianity. "I am not preaching some religion … I'm preaching morality," he said.

And, he said, even if he were an atheist he'd employ moral rehabilitation because he'd rather have inmates starting church groups than gangs.