When we negotiated the program with Iowa and Kansas, we knew more what we were doing. Cowley and Don Raymond, director of the Kansas program, insist no taxpayer money goes to pay for promoting religion. But such assurances don't satisfy people like Lynn, a lawyer and ordained minister who contends the whole program is religiously oriented and segregates people on the basis of religion. The Winfield Correctional Facility houses about 510 minimum-security prisoners in a compound that looks like a college campus. No fences surround the property, no bars are on windows, and the atmosphere is relaxed among guards.
Prisoners live in large dormitories.
About 130 prisoners in the InnerChange program live separately from the general population in a building run by the prison ministry program. Normally you only have to tell them to do something once. For inmates in the 18-month program, which started here in March 2000, the day begins at 5 a.m. and is filled with classes and work, devotions and homework. Some 82 church members recruited from area congregations volunteer to teach and serve as mentors. There are classes for Bible study, life skills and computers, and help, if needed, getting a high school equivalency certificate.