science

InnerChange Freedom Initiative

InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand InnerChange Freedom Initiative rather than just read about it. In short: The InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) was an American Christian prison program operated by Prison Fellowship International (PFI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established by Chuck Colson. The program was closed in 2016.

Key takeaways

InnerChange Freedom Initiative belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect InnerChange Freedom Initiative to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of InnerChange Freedom Initiative from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) was an American Christian prison program operated by Prison Fellowship International (PFI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established by Chuck Colson. The program was closed in 2016.

History

In 1997 the IFI program was introduced to the Carol Vance Unit, a prison in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas. Since then, other IFI programs opened at other prisons throughout the United States. In 2003 the Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized the implementation of a state-funded IFI program in Iowa, accusing it of violating the United States Constitution's separation of church and state provisions. The program was closed in 2016.

IFI program A prisoner's participation in the IFI began 24 to 18 months before his or her scheduled release. Phases one and two occurred during the prisoner's incarceration; phase one concerned what the program referred to as the inmate's "personal values and thought processes and encourages the development of spiritual and moral filters." The program stated that the second phase "tests the inmate's value system in real-life settings and prepares him/her for life after prison. Inmates may spend much of the day in off-site prison work programs or involved in the reentry portion of the IFI curriculum." After release, the prisoner participated in IFI programming for an additional 12 months, with volunteer mentors providing mentoring and support. The 15-hour days of the participants were dominated by Christian beliefs. Many Bible study sessions were held. For instance the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings directly referred to Jesus instead of using the phrase "higher power." The program considered drug addiction to be a sin instead of a disease. The program told prisoners that homosexuality, masturbation, and premarital sexual intercourse were sins. In order to graduate from IFI, one had to be employed for six months after he was released, as well as meet with a trained local mentor, and attend a pro-social group. Some IFI prisoners were involved in Habitat for Humanity projects.

University of Pennsylvania study PFI paid the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society to conduct a study on the effectiveness of the IFI program in the Carol Vance Unit in Fort Bend County, Texas. The study considered the IFI participants and a control group. 177 prisoners participated in the IFI program, and 75 of those prisoners graduated. In order to graduate, a prisoner was required to continue participating in the program after his release, including complying with the employment requirement. The 102 prisoners who did not graduate either received early parole and did not finish, left the program, or were expelled from the program. The members of the IFI group who had their recidivism rates tracked were released from prison before September 1, 2000. PFI intended for the study to have a favorable result so that the study would assist PFI's efforts to receive federal funding. The study concluded that the prisoners who graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of 8 percent. The study's control group had a recidivism rate of 20%. The overall State of Texas recidivism rate was 30%. According to the study, as a whole the group who participated in IFI had a higher likelihood of being rearrested than the control group, with 36% arrested within two years, while 35% of the control group was arrested within two years. 24% of all of the IFI participants were reimprisoned, while 20% of the control group was reimprisoned. The study did not track the employment statuses of members of the control group.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with InnerChange Freedom Initiative

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what InnerChange Freedom Initiative claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to InnerChange Freedom Initiative before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about InnerChange Freedom Initiative ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of InnerChange Freedom Initiative

In research: InnerChange Freedom Initiative appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses InnerChange Freedom Initiative in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: InnerChange Freedom Initiative is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Penology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for InnerChange Freedom Initiative outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study InnerChange Freedom Initiative in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what InnerChange Freedom Initiative means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain InnerChange Freedom Initiative out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is InnerChange Freedom Initiative in simple terms?

Why does InnerChange Freedom Initiative matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study InnerChange Freedom Initiative?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on InnerChange Freedom Initiative.