"What you do to these men, you do to God" --Mother Teresa during her visit to San Quentin Prison
"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from that dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison." --Isaiah 42:6,7
"Every human being is worth more than the worst thing they've done. All life has dignity--guilty life too." --Sr Helen Prejean
‘… time in jail was not wasted. He had gone to jail as an angry, frustrated young activist. In prison the fires of adversity purified him and removed the dross; the steel was tempered. He learned to be more generous in his judgment of others, being gentle with their foibles. It gave him a new depth and serenity at the core of his being, and made him tolerant and magnanimous to a fault, more ready to forgive than to nurse grudges – paradoxically regal and even arrogant, and at the same time ever so humble and modest’. -- Desmond Tutu on Nelson Mandela's Time in Jail, in "Setting Free the Past," an Oliver R. Tambo Lecture delivered at Georgetown University.
The criminal justice system in America strips people bare, and they lose their individuality, worth, psyche, and even their spirituality until nothing is left. Society throws God's creation away with neither the possibility of redemption nor the opportunity for forgiveness. Society's attitude is "just don't let us see or hear about them."
Our youngest child of seven was reared in a loving Catholic family. He has spent fourteen of his eighteen years as an adult in prison. At age nineteen, he was convicted of his first felony as a drug user and distributor. He was sentenced to Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana for twenty years. Along with learning to be a prisoner, he availed himself of the opportunities for rehabilitation. With his family's help, he completed sixteen hours of college credit. Unfortunately, he also learned how to be a more skilled criminal. This is one of the lessons all inmates learn well.
After being paroled and working productively as a free man for two years, he graduated to more serious crime. He is now serving time in a federal prison for bank robbery.
This unique, gifted human who was to be the joy of my old age is now only accessible via annual visits, telephone calls, and mail. What a waste of a life and God's gifts.
In my search for answers, I became involved with a support group called Families of Prisoners sponsored by our Catholic diocese. This led to the creation of a chapter of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) of Louisiana. CURE activities have included working with the Lifer's Organization at Angola to secure more just laws, an annual picnic for the Angola Old Timers (men over 60), and the establishment of a children's corner in the visiting room of several Louisiana prisons.
Having come to know inmates as individual human beings, I'm dismayed at how we throw their lives away. God forgive us. There has to be a better answer.
In their statement, the Bishops agree: "We believe that the current trend of more prisons and more executions, with too little education and drug treatment, does not truly reflect Christian values and will not really leave our communities safer. We are convinced that our tradition and our faith offer better alternatives that can hold offenders accountable and challenge them to change their lives; reach out to victims and reject vengeance; restore a sense of community and resist the violence that has engulfed so much of our culture . . .
The Church should not only have a strong presence in prisons and jails—where we Catholics work to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of inmates—but should make special efforts to assist children left without the support of their incarcerated parent. Catholics can:
(1)Promote prison ministry programs at the diocesan and parish levels. We affirm the dedicated deacons and priests who carry forward this mission. We welcome lay ministers—both volunteer and professional—who are indispensable to this ministry.
(2) Reach out to the families of inmates. Parishes can mentor families caught up in the cycle of crime, assist with transportation for prison visitations, offer material assistance when income is lost because of the incarceration, and provide counseling (often through Catholic Charities agencies); and
(3)Promote prisoner re-entry programs. Often the most difficult time for a former inmate is trying to reintegrate into his or her community. Some parishes have made available church property for transition houses while others assist in providing the spiritual, material, and emotional assistance that the probation and parole system rarely provides.
Visiting / Writing Letters to Men and Women Who are in Prison
Visiting or writing to men and women in prison can help them to keep a positive attitude, focus on the future, find jobs and housing upon release, improve their education, and become contributing members of society.
Visiting Men and Women in Prison
The Bureau of Prisons encourages visiting by family, friends, and community groups to maintain the morale of the inmate and to develop closer relationships between the inmate and family members or others in the community. Generally, a prisoner is allowed a list of about 10 family members, friends and associates who have been approved for visitation. Check with the prisoner and/or prison for further information.
Writing to Men and Women in Prison
Writing to a prisoner, like visiting a prisoner, is a corporeal work of mercy. There are a number of prison pen pal programs available online. The Death Row Support Project, coordinated by the Church of the Brethren, is one example of a good program. First Century Christian Ministries, once highlighted by the National Catholic Register, is another program that carefully screens individuals who want to become an anonymous spiritual pen pal for a Catholic Prisoner; if interested, write to FCCM c/o Joseph Strada, 5120 Pheasant Ridge Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030, for Pen Pal Guidelines.
Regardless of how you arrange to write to a man or woman in prison, click here for some general guidelines to keep in mind.
The Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death
The Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty - The Catholic bishops in the United States have been calling for an end to the use of the death penalty for more than twenty-five years. In 2005, they invited Catholics to join them in an ongoing “Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty.”
Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) to end the use of the death penalty proclaims the Church's unconditional pro-life teaching and its application to capital punishment and restorative justice. CMN works in close collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to prepare Catholics for informed involvement in campaigns to repeal state death penalty laws and expand or inaugurate restorative justice programs.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops explain that "torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved--policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished values. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.
Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now-without exceptions.
