Penal optimism and second chances: The legacies of American Protestantism and the prospects for penal reform

This article first makes the case that optimism in the reform potential of criminal offenders has recently increased among American policymakers, as evidenced by the bipartisan passage of the Second Chance Act of 2007, which encourages prisoner reentry and sets ambitious targets for recidivism reduction. It then sets this apparent renewal of ‘penal optimism’ in historical context by drawing on American evangelical Protestant traditions and examining how these affect contemporary perceptions of the redeemability of criminal offenders. One aim is to acquaint criminologists with the discourse of evangelical Protestantism, a significant and driving force in contemporary penal reform efforts – particularly in the realm of prisoner reentry – by outlining key religious concepts and their implications for penal discourse and policy.