Former Prison Warden and National Director of Prisons & Re-Entry Alpha USA

Jack retired with 30 years of service from the State of Oklahoma Department of Corrections. The majority of his career with the state was as a prison warden where he served in that capacity at three facilities. He is a firm believer that prisons should be institutions which promote public safety by offering inmates meaningful opportunities to change their behavior rather than simply warehouses where they do time and continue to harm the public once released.

Upon retirement in 1996 Jack joined the staff of Prison Fellowship Ministries as a public policy advocate for criminal justice reform and later Director of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), an intensive faith based prison re-entry program located near Houston, Texas. He went on to be the National Director of Operations for IFI establishing programs in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota. Through IFI a model was established which vastly reduces the rate that inmates released from prison re-offend.

For one year prior to joining Alpha USA in 2004 Jack was the Director of Programs for Freedom Ranch, Inc. a non-profit ministry headquartered in Tulsa that provides transitional housing for released offenders and out patient drug and alcohol treatment. Alpha USA equips the local church with materials and instruction in providing a 12-week course in basic Christianity. His primary function is to assist the church in providing ministry opportunities to prisons that include re-entry services.

Mr. Cowley has consulted on prisons and criminal justice issues on a national level and serves on the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Corrections, as well as a staff member at the University of Phoenix. He is a founding board member of the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Association and a member of the Restorative Justice and Victim s Committee of the American Correctional Association.

Jack earned his Bachelors of Science from Oklahoma State University in Sociology as well as a Masters of Science in Corrections. He has completed his course work toward his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in Organizational Leadership. He co-authored, Lifeline: A Drug/Alcohol Program for Negatively Addicted Inmates Journal of Reality Therapy- Spring 1990. He appeared on the 1996 HBO Special: Prison Life: Prisoners of the War on Drugs and the 2002 PBS Frontline Special: Burden of Innocence .

Jack Cowley endorses  Free Inside.

As a former prison warden, who has observed faithbased programs for many years, I can attest to the fact that inmates respond to Alpha in a very positive way. This is due in part to the fact that they are allowed to actively participate in the course rather than be preached to. The course is very structured which gives Wardens and Chaplains a degree of confidence in being aware of what is going on through the process and can hold volunteers accountable for meeting their stated goals. 

Furthermore Alpha USA provides other curriculum which when combined together can become a strategic component of a re-entry initiative preparing inmates for release.  Released inmates who have successfully completed the curriculum may have access to the network of over 9000 churches that support the Alpha course. 

I am very supportive and grateful for Free Inside and its work in this area of criminal justice as we strive for greater effectiveness in increasing public safety.