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"You can just see the joy on the inmates' faces," he says. "Rapes have gone down, and murders have all but disappeared."

Nothing helps reduce the number of ex-convicts who return to prison, he says, like participating in religious programs while inside. Earning a high school equivalency degree in prison reduces the chance of returning by 4 percent. Having a job waiting on the outside is worth another 14 percent, he says, but participating in a religious program half the time they're locked up is good for a 36 percent reduction.

"The national repeat offender rate is 67 percent—Louisiana's is down to 50," Downing says. "We must be doing something right."

Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship has a solid presence at Angola, as does Kairos Prison Ministry, an international Christian outreach established in Florida in 1976. Also present is Weekend of Champions, a ministry that uses star athletes and other celebrities to reach inmates.

Going for the Gold, a Christ-centered program that teaches life skills, is starved for outside volunteers, he says. Many other programs have the same problem. "Just at the time when Louisiana prisons are open for business, we don't have enough volunteers," Downing says. "People are comfortable sitting in pews. You've got to get out of the pews to find the lost sheep but, to the average person, the thought of actually going into a prison is appalling."

In a prison culture where inmates will often do anything to ingratiate themselves with the warden, Cain is certain of the authenticity of the transformed lives at Angola.

"I could tell they were serious when an inmate came to me and asked how he could tell his victim's family he was sorry, how he could ask them to forgive him," he says. "I really felt he got it."

Cain knows that kind of change will not reach every inmate. "It's like fish. I can't catch them all." In December 1999, a group of Camp D inmates, in an apparent escape attempt, killed a corrections officer who would not give up his keys. One inmate died in the attempt to rescue the other captive guard. Two more inmates were killed earlier this year, and prisoners still try to escape.

But violence is down because of God, Cain says. "He put an umbrella over us, and it really calmed us down—nothing else should get the credit," he says. "We always had the education programs. The only thing we did different was we brought God to Angola. We didn't really bring him. He just let us bring him.

"I wish other prison wardens could realize what we learned—that the only rehabilitation is moral rehabilitation."

Chris Frink is a newspaper reporter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who has written extensively about the state prison system.

Copyright  2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A sidebar to this main article features Angola's Warden Burl Cain.

More Christianity Today articles on prison ministry include:

New Life in a Culture of Death | Hope for Colombia dwells inside its most lethal killing field—Bellavista Prison. (Feb. 02, 2004)

'I Was Looking for Peace and Found it in Christ' | A converted felon in Colombia reflects on life in the guerrilla ranks. (Feb. 02, 2004)

Suing Success | Prison Fellowship says its Inner Change program is clearly constitutional. (March 18, 2003)

The Legacy of Prisoner 23226 | Twenty-six years after leaving prison, Charles Colson has become one of America's most significant social reformers. (July 29, 2001)

Prison Ministry in Mozambique | Missionary says women suffer grave injustices. (Aug. 4, 2000)

Setting Captives Free | It takes more than getting a woman inmate out of jail to turn her life around (Jan. 10, 2000)

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May 2004, Vol. 48, No. 5