Comments on: Who’s in jail in Canada? http://terahertzatheist.ca/2012/10/04/whos-in-jail-in-canada/ Science and compassion for a better world Thu, 16 Jun 2016 21:08:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3 By: Ian http://terahertzatheist.ca/2012/10/04/whos-in-jail-in-canada/comment-page-1/#comment-39855 Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:12:03 +0000 http://terahertzatheist.ca/?p=2703#comment-39855 Wow, I missed my typo above (6.6% of prison declared other).

Anyway, it’s really hard to tell from these numbers and the data from the CSC. It sounds like they just went through in April 2005 and asked people what they identified as. The issue with betting on in-jail conversions is that the numbers don’t support it. If prisoners were converting en masse, we would expect disproportionate numbers of Christians or theists to the general public (there could be alternate explanations for a trend like this, e.g. atheists committing fewer crimes). Instead we see fewer protestants and more non-religious.

Perhaps the opposite is true then, and the existence of prison chaplains is scaring people away from religion.

]]> By: Denny http://terahertzatheist.ca/2012/10/04/whos-in-jail-in-canada/comment-page-1/#comment-39854 Fri, 19 Oct 2012 05:06:17 +0000 http://terahertzatheist.ca/?p=2703#comment-39854 One thing I wonder is whether these reflect the prison population at the moment, or if they ask what their faith is when they come in.
If it’s the current population something to consider is the number of inmates that convert or find religion while incarcerated. It’s possible that the faith of the chaplains available has an influence over the religion someone that converts chooses. Does a prison having a catholic chaplain and not a protestant one play an influence in an inmate who is interested in starting to practice a religion choosing catholicism or being a protestant or another religion?

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