Bridges To Life

"The mission of Bridges To Life is to connect communities to prisons to reduce the recidivism rate (particularly that of violent crimes), reduce the number of crime victims, and enhance public safety.

Who We Are

Bridges To Life (BTL) is a faith-based restorative justice program for incarcerated men and women that reduces recidivism among program graduates and helps make our communities safer. BTL accomplishes this mission by utilizing a unique 14-week curriculum centered on victim impact and facilitated by volunteers. Over 93,000 offenders have graduated from the BTL program, with the help of more than 4,200 volunteers! Bridges To Life has been conducted in 238 facilities since inception, and its curriculum has been used in 19 states and 7 countries.

The Bridges To Life program is currently active in over 100 prisons and alternative facilities, and will graduate an estimated 7,000 participants this year.

Why We’re Needed

The goal of the BTL program is to effect a transformation in the minds and hearts of offenders so that, once released, they will not return to their former life of crime. This reduction in recidivism has significant economic and societal impact, saving taxpayer dollars and making our communities safer. The cost to the taxpayer to incarcerate an offender in a Texas prison over the length of the average sentence is approximately $121,600, and that is without the collateral costs of judicial process prior to incarceration.

In 2025, the cost of the Bridges To Life program was just $281 per graduate.

What We’ve Accomplished

The BTL program has proven to reduce recidivism, which is the rate at which released offenders return to prison. A 2020 National Police Foundation independent research study compared the recidivism rates of a group of released offenders who had not taken the BTL program while incarcerated, with a matching group of BTL graduates. The study found that BTL significantly decreased the overall recidivism rate. Most notably, only 1.4% of released BTL graduates were reincarcerated for a violent crime, compared to 3.7% of the non-BTL group. Furthermore, the most recent studies conducted with the assistance of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reveal that the recidivism rate of BTL graduates is only 11%, compared to 30% nationally.

This means 89% of BTL graduates did not return to prison within 3 years after release!