Religion in US Prisons. Dr Michael Hallett & Professor Byron talk about their research at Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) and the place of relig...

We were fortunate to have two such interesting 'hands on' academics in this conversation. Within an academic climate that is not always sympathetic or collaborative they engaged in a three year research project in one of the most notorious penal establishments in the Uniteds States, Angola.

 

Dr. Michael Hallett is a full Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of North Florida. Dr. Hallett just finished his fourth book and has published research appearing in numerous additional books and journals including Punishment & Society, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Critical Criminology and others. Dr. Hallett's focus is Corrections & Social Inequality, Punishment & Society, and Religion & Crime. Dr. Hallett designed Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Pretrial Services Unit (drug treatment/diversion) and has completed extensive work with local organizations including Prisoners of Christ, Operation New Hope, Hubbard House, the City of Jacksonville, JCCI and others. Most recently, Dr. Hallett led a three-year study at America's largest maximum-security prison, "Angola" (aka Louisiana State Penitentiary) exploring the religious lives of long-term inmates. He has served as Principal Investigator on grants from the US Department of Justice, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Jesse Ball DuPont Foundation, and several other organizations. Dr. Hallett has chaired two academic departments at UNF (Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice and Criminology & Criminal Justice) after first directing the Graduate program in Criminal Justice. Dr. Hallett frequently works on local justice issues in Jacksonville and has completed over a dozen funded projects at UNF, often employing students in the research. Dr Hallett also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.

 

• Hallett, M. (Guest Editor) Special Issue * Social Justice * "Emancipatory Justice." Forthcoming 2017.
• Hallett, M., J. Hays, B. Johnson, SJ Jang, G Duwe (2017). //www.routledge.com/The-Angola-Prison-Seminary-Effects-of-Faith-Based-Ministry-on-Identity/Hallett-Hays-Johnson-Jang-Duwe/p/book/9780815351733?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxoiQBhCRARIsAPsvo-xH9-GOhfmTalVcw6RsQWJhZu3I2Q1NcNrq97aGFmqIBpGNEJiiS7caAqvAEALw_wcB
• Hallett, Michael A. 2006. Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.**
• Hallett, Michael A. (Editor). 1997. Activism and Marginalization in the AIDS Crisis. New York: Routledge.**
• Hallett, Michael A. and Dennis J. Palumbo. 1993. U.S. Criminal Justice Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.**

Byron Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) as well as director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior.  He is a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. He has been the principal investigator on grants from private foundations as well as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Institute for Peace. He is the author of more than 250 articles and a number of books including More God, Less Crime (2011), The Angola Prison Seminary (2016), The Quest for Purpose (2017), The Restorative Prison (2021), and Objective Religion (2021). He is project director for the Global Flourishing Study, a longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between scholars at Harvard University and Baylor University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science and with the support of a consortium of funders. The $43.4 million initiative will include data collection for approximately 240,000 participants from 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries.