After 20 years of creating piecemeal programs for inmates and ex-cons, Colson wants to launch the spiritual equivalent of Desert Storm. Call it the God Pod. There has to be something in people that makes them want to do the right thing. That's what Christian conversion does that nothing else does. The initiative brings together, under one roof, some of the most effective Prison Fellowship programs developed since its inception in 1976.
Inmates enter a vigorous routine of counseling, work, accountability, and restitution.
Virtually every activity, from learning to control anger to acquiring good work habits, is connected to Christian teaching. About 300 volunteers eventually will work with 200 prisoners-well over half the inmate population. Ray Roberts, Prison Fellowship's program director for Jester II, says most criminals need a radical overhaul of their moral machinery, their sense of right and wrong. With 160,000 inmates, Texas maintains the largest prison population and the highest incarceration rate in the nation. That's pretty close to the national average.