A VOLUNTARY Christian discipleship course for prisoners at Dartmoor Prison has been axed after only one year because it did not comply with ?diversity policies?. The course, Inner Change, originated in the USA in the 1990s and was adopted for a pilot programme by the Rev Bill Birdwood, Chaplain of Dartmoor Prison, last year, and supported by the then governor Claudia Sturt. Funded by the charitable trust New Start, it is a religious intervention programme aimed at transforming prisoners? behaviour, building on a foundation that rests upon biblical principles. Those taking part do so on a voluntary basis, and are provided with mentors who continue with aftercare once they have left prison. Mr Birdwood said he was ?very disappointed? by the closure, as he believed it had a very positive input into the lives of those on the programme. But he said it was hoped there would be an appeals process. However, Philip Dautrich, who came over from Texas in October 2004 to start the programme said he has heard from the prison area office there was no appeals process. Mr Dautrich said he, too, was very disappointed with the decision, which had come as a shock, as it was the inmates who would lose out in the long run. He said the programme took three to four years to bed-in so was amazed it was being axed after only 14 months ? especially as it cost the Prison Service nothing. A total of 38 prisoners had entered the rolling programme during that time. Some had decided to leave it, eight had been released from prison and were on the aftercare programme and seven were due to be released at the end of the year into aftercare. There were currently eight prisoners still on the course, who were being allowed to continue for now, but he did not know when the final closure would happen. ?I have given the governor a proposal and am waiting to hear from her,? Mr Dautrich said. The governor?s office would not comment, but a spokesperson for the Prison Service said: ?The course was evaluated by a prison service panel. The panel concluded that there were issues within the Inner Change programme that were not in line with the prison?s diversity policy?. He confirmed there was no appeals process, but people were welcome to write to the governor or Prison Service. The main two issues, according to the area psychologist for the Prison Service, were that the course did not comply with the diversity policy because it taught the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, which is seen as homophobic, and secondly because it did not fit in with the multi-faith agenda and could be ?proselytising?. Concerning these reasons, Mr Dautrich said the course contained no teaching on homosexuality. ?Where the prison service got that from I don?t know. We do preach the sanctity of marriage in the last part of the course, stressing the importance of it and what it can to do for the family.? The claim that it did not fit in with a mulit-faith agenda also puzzled him, as the various religious representatives at the prison ? including an imam and a Buddhist ? met regularly and none had expressed any concerns to him.
