http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...ists-its-a-lot-smaller-than-we-ever-imagined/
Ignore the fact it is an Atheist blog. The data was procided by the U.S. dept of Justice.
Although I have always been anti statistic (they can be inaccurate, rigged, results could vary from day to day and group to group etc.) I will answer this as if these are accurate statistics because this is definitely an observation and statistics that should be discussed.
First, there are many in jail who say they are Christians who do not believe anything Christian, as you have already stated above. This is a large group. I meet people like this all the time. They were raised in church, but never came to true salvation, and so they are Christians by association. That is they identify with the group, even though they don't believe what the group holds. Now obviously believers can disagree on different doctrines, but the one thing that makes up all believers is the gospel (what Jesus did for them by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead). Many people call themselves Christians, yet don't believe the gospel. Some didn't have real faith or understanding of the gospel when asking for salvation or they believe that by being good they will go to heaven (instead of believing on God's righteous work) or others have different beliefs like God takes everyone to heaven.
As far as who are the true believers, well God is the one who knows who are the real believers, but as Brother Paul wrote, the bible says, "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). What are the fruits. "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23 meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23). "for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9(for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth)" (Ephesians 5:9). However, every believer is being sanctified (learning to walk more and more from God's Spirit rather than self) so some believers may be walking in the fruit of the Spirit of God more than others as they learn more to submit to God and his goodness in His Spirit.
Back to the jail thing (sorry I am mixing both responses because they relate). The second group of those jailed are those who believed the gospel, who have fallen away by listening to the troubles in the world. (This is who you are talking about).
Then there are probably some who are there innocently in jail (probably a small percentage if so).
And then there are those who realizing the sinfulness of their own selves and their inability to control themselves (which is why they are in jail) turn to God out of desperation wanting God to change them from the vile selves they know themselves to be. Often those who come to God this way are dramatically changed because they realize they have to be fully dependent on God, knowing they can't change by their own will even if they want to, so they are readily willing to rely on God and his power and when they hear the gospel, they instantly have faith and believe.
Those who experience a dramatic change upon accepting Christ as their savior can be so different that upon going into jail as a mass murderer they are changed into the most loving and caring people around. That is what God's power can do that to people. Apostle Paul was dramatically changed to a completely different person. He was a zealous persecutor of Christians, but after his conversion he was a zealous defender of the gospel. Paul grieved for what he had done, but there was no way to change the earthly consequences of his past. He was forgiven, but couldn't bring the people he killed back to life. The bible says with Paul speaking, "For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Corinthians 15:9). Nevertheless God turned bad into good.
What else can God do? Every sin no matter how small causes death and destruction whether we realize it of not. "For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
I noticed that your response to Just Passing Thru. I do not in any way think that Just Passing Thru takes light of murder. What that scripture is showing however ("I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment"[Matthew 5:22]) is that every sin is way more devastating than any of us would naturally think. God who is perfect can't commune with sin or he would be sinful. God has never sinned, ever. And even what we think may be a minor sin is so devastating that it separates us from God eternally because it kills us spiritually. One sin is all that is necessary for the perfect to become imperfect. If God had heaven with those with sin in them, it wouldn't be perfect, but it would be just like here with murder, lying, hatred, anger. Often murder starts out as anger. Murder, anger, greed, hatred, covetousness are all evil energies. Every manifestation is an energy. Every word is a manifestation. God's plan is for an eternity with only his loving and perfect characteristics and manifestations in it.
So how can a murderer go to heaven and not be bringing evil manifestation with them. There is only one way and it is the same way for all of us. When God paid the penalty for our sin, he basically took all our sins on himself as if he had done them. Those who accept God's payment for their sins which includes not only a person's past sins but their current and future sins as well have the Spirit of Christ indwell them. The believer's spirit is made alive in God's Spirit and is seen through God's righteousness which is now in them, rather than their own righteousness which is actually sin laden. The believer by faith not only gets the free gift of salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but they are raised as part of Christ's spiritual body, thus their spirit is one with God's righteousness spiritual body. Again this is by faith.
I know the spiritual body may sound odd to you, but if you were to think of all manifestations having frequencies and the spiritual body being on a different frequency than the physical body, maybe it would make more sense to you.
God had an original plan for everyone which was good and instead of destroying someone, God wants the person saved and living in His righteous in Jesus by faith, so they can be what He made them to be, a loving and perfect being that He can love and communicate with.
So the evil of the murderer with it's evil thoughts and actions and manifestations does not exist anymore because the person in Christ is not in their own self, but they live in God and are seen through Him. The murderer was nailed to the cross by faith in Jesus. With true faith the person is changed. So I would tell a child that only the righteous go to heaven. That is those who are righteous because they live in God now, not in themselves.
I hope I didn't repeat to much, because I was answering more than one thread at the same time.