With help from a hidden hand

摘要

The sun has not yet risen, but the inmates have been awake for two hours. In a rundown gymnasium, dressed in green prison jackets, they sing, "Hallelujah, Jesus Loves Me". Some sway back and forth with their hands in the air, others slump in chairs with their heads down. For the next 16 hours, those taking part in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at this prison on the outskirts of Houston will follow a strict regime of scripture-reading, job training, family counselling and prayer, all meant to ensure that they do not end up back behind bars. Inner-Change is trying to transform some of Texas's most hardened jailbirds into responsible Christians ready for life on the outside. If they accept a higher law, it believes, they are more likely to obey earthly ones.