Kairos Prison Ministry

Not to be confused with Kairos (retreat), a related three day movement for high school and college students

Kairos Prison Ministry is an international organization conducting three to four day movement programs for people serving in prisons. It originated in 1976 under the name of "Cursillo in Prison", first offered in Raiford, Florida. It was renamed to "Kairos" in 1979, after the Kairos retreat targeted to students.

Owing to the restrictions of such an environment, many of the programs inside prisons are spread over more than three days. Attendees of all faiths are welcome. The Kairos program currently operates in more than 350 prisons worldwide, in the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and Canada. More than 170,000 inmates have attended the program.

Organization

The modern Kairos program is run out of a single instruction book, containing all of the lessons learned by the organization for the weekends. The book versions are kept as colors; the most recent book is Red and the previous one was Blue.[1] There are monthly reunions in the prison to reconnect volunteers and graduates, and some institutions only have reunions. The concept is to hold reunions to encourage and support Kairos graduates from other prisons until there are sufficient volunteers to hold weekends at that prison.

The volunteer team[2] is referred to as the Kairos Outside team, and there is also a Kairos Inside team.[3] The Outside team brings in all speakers, materials, and food for the weekend and reunion, and the Inside team provides speakers, almost all supporting manpower, and the selection of each weekend's participants. Both Inside and Outside team members support new participants with letters and posters, meant to remind each new participant they are not alone.

Impact

There are a lot of ways to calculate recidivism, and many criteria that up for discussion, such as only including convictions for a similar offense or including any person fingerprinted, regardless of outcome. In a study of 505 Florida inmates, the recidivism rate was 10% among those who had participated in two or more Kairos sessions, 15.7% among those who had participated in one Kairos session, and 23.4% among the non-Kairos control group.[4] Over a two year period, one South Carolina prison reported a 55%-62% recidivism rate for the general population, and a 20%-30% recidivism rate for Kairos graduates.[5] The exact criteria used for recidivism in both of these was not disclosed.

Other Programs

More recently as Kairos Outside started for those directly affected by the imprisonment of another. The Kairos Outside program currently operates in the USA, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa. Kairos Torch is the program for juvenile offenders. As of 4/6/2014, there were 80 Kairos Outside programs and 26 Kairos Torch programs recognized worldwide.[6]

Horizon Communities In Prison [7] is based on Kairos but includes all religions, and receives funding from four different Department of Corrections to operate.

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Red and Blue book change summary" (PDF). Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Volunteer Team Summary". Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Inside Team Member Guidebook" (PDF). Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ "KPMI Website FAQ". Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Statistics taken from ALLENDALE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION newsletters and updates, 2014-2015, "Allendale SC Institution Page". Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Kairos 5 year Strategic Plan 2014 to 2019" (PDF). Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Horizon Communities Website". Retrieved August 6, 2015.


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