Reform is the new black
SPOTLIGHT: PRISON MINISTRY 9
NOVEMBER 5, 2015 • TrentonMonitor.com
Reform is the new black
New momentum drives push to improve criminal justice system By Patrick T. Brown Associate Editor
A growing political consensus According to data compiled by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, a UK-based research and advocacy organization, the United Kingdom has a prison population rate of about 150 people imprisoned per every 100,000 people in the country. In Iran, it’s 290 per 100,000. Russia imprisons about 450 of its citizens per every 100,000 persons. The United States outstrips every other developed nation by having a rate of 698 people imprisoned for every 100,000 people in the population, for a total prison population of just over 2.2 million men and women. That number is comprised of nearly 1.5 million serving time in state or federal prisons, as well as over 700,000 in local jails. According to numbers from the Department of Justice, 650,000 inmates are released from local, state,
Father Martin McGeough, C.M.
A shepherd who doesn’t leave any of his flock behind: Pope Francis and the incarcerated
W
hen Peter Okajima would hear the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, he could place himself in the place of those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and cared for the sick. But there was one corporal work of mercy he couldn’t envision himself living out. Hearing the 25th chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel “struck a nerve,” said Okajima, who leads R.C.I.A. for St. David the King Parish, Princeton Junction. “I could relate to the works of mercy…except one, visiting the imprisoned. Those words would stay with me long after the reading, and I just knew that God was trying to tell me something.” The ministry of visiting those in prison often inspires a greater “All of us are commitment to justice and increased pathways invited to to redemption for those encourage, who have paid their debt to society. help and With the recent release of more than enable your 6,000 federal prisoners rehabilitation” whose sentences were shortened, increasing attention is being paid to the way our nation supports those who are trying to avoid returning to criminal activities. On the one hand, advocates say, action is needed as a matter of social justice. Additionally, they argue, there are tremendous cost savings associated with reducing recidivism and lowering the amount spent on keeping low-level offenders in correctional facilities. It’s an intuition that’s backed up by numbers. The Vera Institute for Justice, a nonpartisan criminal justice think tank in New York City, found the average cost of housing an inmate for a year was over $30,000– roughly the same as the annual tuition at private Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In recent months, activists and faith leaders have teamed up with some unexpected partners to reform the country’s criminal justice system in ways that are more fair and just. For the inmates who find spiritual strength from people like Okajima and Vincentian Father Martin McGeough, coordinator of the Diocese’s prison ministry efforts (see Diocesan Spotlight, on right), reform could strengthen their ability to avoid falling back into the same habits and behaviors that landed them in prison in the first place.
DIOCESAN SPOTLIGHT
F A MINISTRY OF HOPE • Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., speaks to volunteers in the diocesan jail and prison ministry gathered at St. Ann Church, Lawrenceville, in 2014. John Blaine file photo
or federal custody every year. Of those leaving prison in a given year, about two-thirds, or around 435,000, will re-offend within three years of being released. Leaving those released from prison without concrete plans or programs to help them avoid the company that led them to offend in the first place seems to be a recipe for a return journey. That prescription has led to a bipartisan push for a saner, fairer, more efficient approach. On Nov. 2, President Barack Obama spoke on criminal justice reform outside of the Rutgers University Center for Law and Justice Building in Newark. He told the crowd that the United States “account[s] for five percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its inmates...We’ve got to make sure Americans who’ve paid their debt to society can earn their second chance.” The president announced that the federal government would no longer be using criminal history to screen out applicants from many federal jobs, and called on Congress to pass legislation that would make it federal policy. People should be “fairly punished when they break the law,” Obama said. “But the ultimate goal is to make sure that folks are law-abiding, self-sufficient, good citizens. And everything we do should be designed towards that goal.” In Congress, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would increase judges’ discretion in sentencing and reduce some mandatory minimums. Efforts to improve opportunities for returning ex-offenders have been spoken highly of by conservatives such as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist “We’re keeping certain people in prison for how long — at $20,000 a year, $50,000 a year in California,” Norquist told a Capitol Hill publication in 2011. “Does that make sense? Do you really want taxpayers paying that much?”
A ministry of rehabilitation “A Catholic approach [to criminal justice] begins with the recognition that the dignity of the human person applies to both victim and offender,” wrote the U.S. bishops in their 2000 statement “Responsibility, Rehabilitation, And Restoration: A Catholic Perspective On Crime And Criminal Justice.” “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.”
rom the time of his election, Pope Francis has called us to go to the marginalized. But Francis, like Jesus, does not just simply tell us to do something. He does it himself. He practices what he preaches, and calls us to do the same. Francis’ interest in the incarcerated did not begin with his papacy. This was part of his life and ministry in Argentina, and we know that he called inmates he had been visiting after his election as Pope. Before he was Pope, he went to prisons on Holy Thursdays, and continued that tradition after his selection as the successor of St. Peter. He has continue to give an example of visiting the imprisoned in his visits around the world, including the United States, when he took time during his trip to Philadelphia to spend time with inmates at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. In his words to those in prison, Francis speaks to them about bringing themselves to Jesus. On his first Holy Thursday as Pope, through both words and actions, he told youth in an Italian See Pope Francis • 14
When the statement was released in November 2000, there were 200,000 fewer inmates nationwide. During his September visit to America, Pope Francis made a point of visiting a prison, calling attention to the often-forgotten millions serving time and striving to not return to prison once their sentence is up. “This time in your life can only have one purpose: to give you a hand in getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society,” the Holy Father told the inmates. “All of us are part of that effort, all of us are invited to encourage, help and enable your rehabilitation. A rehabilitation which everyone seeks and desires: inmates and their families, correctional authorities, social and educational programs. A rehabilitation which benefits and elevates the morale of the entire community and society.” While political leaders debate the future of prison reform and discuss efforts to curb recidivism, members of the diocesan prison ministry will continue to seek to bring that spirit of encouragement to the people they visit. Before joining the team of volunteers, Okajima said, “I had never stepped foot in prison and the only images I had were from the movies and TV. Let me tell you, I was scared. This was one ministry I really didn’t want to get involved with, and it was because of that I finally realized it was a ministry I had to embrace.” Among the 11 facilities ministered to by the diocesan team is Fort Dix, the largest single prison by number of inmates in the country. Other locations include the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, and the Central Reception and Assignment Facility and Jones Farm in Trenton. “I’ve learned that whenever God asks me to do something for someone else, it always turns out that I also receive his grace in the giving,” Okajima said. “And this is true for prison ministry as well. After a while, you get to know some of the incarcerated men and their stories. “I often drive home thinking, ‘There but for the Grace of God go I.’”
NOVEMBER 5, 2015 • TrentonMonitor.com
Reform is the new black
New momentum drives push to improve criminal justice system By Patrick T. Brown Associate Editor
A growing political consensus According to data compiled by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, a UK-based research and advocacy organization, the United Kingdom has a prison population rate of about 150 people imprisoned per every 100,000 people in the country. In Iran, it’s 290 per 100,000. Russia imprisons about 450 of its citizens per every 100,000 persons. The United States outstrips every other developed nation by having a rate of 698 people imprisoned for every 100,000 people in the population, for a total prison population of just over 2.2 million men and women. That number is comprised of nearly 1.5 million serving time in state or federal prisons, as well as over 700,000 in local jails. According to numbers from the Department of Justice, 650,000 inmates are released from local, state,
Father Martin McGeough, C.M.
A shepherd who doesn’t leave any of his flock behind: Pope Francis and the incarcerated
W
hen Peter Okajima would hear the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, he could place himself in the place of those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and cared for the sick. But there was one corporal work of mercy he couldn’t envision himself living out. Hearing the 25th chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel “struck a nerve,” said Okajima, who leads R.C.I.A. for St. David the King Parish, Princeton Junction. “I could relate to the works of mercy…except one, visiting the imprisoned. Those words would stay with me long after the reading, and I just knew that God was trying to tell me something.” The ministry of visiting those in prison often inspires a greater “All of us are commitment to justice and increased pathways invited to to redemption for those encourage, who have paid their debt to society. help and With the recent release of more than enable your 6,000 federal prisoners rehabilitation” whose sentences were shortened, increasing attention is being paid to the way our nation supports those who are trying to avoid returning to criminal activities. On the one hand, advocates say, action is needed as a matter of social justice. Additionally, they argue, there are tremendous cost savings associated with reducing recidivism and lowering the amount spent on keeping low-level offenders in correctional facilities. It’s an intuition that’s backed up by numbers. The Vera Institute for Justice, a nonpartisan criminal justice think tank in New York City, found the average cost of housing an inmate for a year was over $30,000– roughly the same as the annual tuition at private Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In recent months, activists and faith leaders have teamed up with some unexpected partners to reform the country’s criminal justice system in ways that are more fair and just. For the inmates who find spiritual strength from people like Okajima and Vincentian Father Martin McGeough, coordinator of the Diocese’s prison ministry efforts (see Diocesan Spotlight, on right), reform could strengthen their ability to avoid falling back into the same habits and behaviors that landed them in prison in the first place.
DIOCESAN SPOTLIGHT
F A MINISTRY OF HOPE • Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., speaks to volunteers in the diocesan jail and prison ministry gathered at St. Ann Church, Lawrenceville, in 2014. John Blaine file photo
or federal custody every year. Of those leaving prison in a given year, about two-thirds, or around 435,000, will re-offend within three years of being released. Leaving those released from prison without concrete plans or programs to help them avoid the company that led them to offend in the first place seems to be a recipe for a return journey. That prescription has led to a bipartisan push for a saner, fairer, more efficient approach. On Nov. 2, President Barack Obama spoke on criminal justice reform outside of the Rutgers University Center for Law and Justice Building in Newark. He told the crowd that the United States “account[s] for five percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its inmates...We’ve got to make sure Americans who’ve paid their debt to society can earn their second chance.” The president announced that the federal government would no longer be using criminal history to screen out applicants from many federal jobs, and called on Congress to pass legislation that would make it federal policy. People should be “fairly punished when they break the law,” Obama said. “But the ultimate goal is to make sure that folks are law-abiding, self-sufficient, good citizens. And everything we do should be designed towards that goal.” In Congress, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would increase judges’ discretion in sentencing and reduce some mandatory minimums. Efforts to improve opportunities for returning ex-offenders have been spoken highly of by conservatives such as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist “We’re keeping certain people in prison for how long — at $20,000 a year, $50,000 a year in California,” Norquist told a Capitol Hill publication in 2011. “Does that make sense? Do you really want taxpayers paying that much?”
A ministry of rehabilitation “A Catholic approach [to criminal justice] begins with the recognition that the dignity of the human person applies to both victim and offender,” wrote the U.S. bishops in their 2000 statement “Responsibility, Rehabilitation, And Restoration: A Catholic Perspective On Crime And Criminal Justice.” “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.”
rom the time of his election, Pope Francis has called us to go to the marginalized. But Francis, like Jesus, does not just simply tell us to do something. He does it himself. He practices what he preaches, and calls us to do the same. Francis’ interest in the incarcerated did not begin with his papacy. This was part of his life and ministry in Argentina, and we know that he called inmates he had been visiting after his election as Pope. Before he was Pope, he went to prisons on Holy Thursdays, and continued that tradition after his selection as the successor of St. Peter. He has continue to give an example of visiting the imprisoned in his visits around the world, including the United States, when he took time during his trip to Philadelphia to spend time with inmates at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. In his words to those in prison, Francis speaks to them about bringing themselves to Jesus. On his first Holy Thursday as Pope, through both words and actions, he told youth in an Italian See Pope Francis • 14
When the statement was released in November 2000, there were 200,000 fewer inmates nationwide. During his September visit to America, Pope Francis made a point of visiting a prison, calling attention to the often-forgotten millions serving time and striving to not return to prison once their sentence is up. “This time in your life can only have one purpose: to give you a hand in getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society,” the Holy Father told the inmates. “All of us are part of that effort, all of us are invited to encourage, help and enable your rehabilitation. A rehabilitation which everyone seeks and desires: inmates and their families, correctional authorities, social and educational programs. A rehabilitation which benefits and elevates the morale of the entire community and society.” While political leaders debate the future of prison reform and discuss efforts to curb recidivism, members of the diocesan prison ministry will continue to seek to bring that spirit of encouragement to the people they visit. Before joining the team of volunteers, Okajima said, “I had never stepped foot in prison and the only images I had were from the movies and TV. Let me tell you, I was scared. This was one ministry I really didn’t want to get involved with, and it was because of that I finally realized it was a ministry I had to embrace.” Among the 11 facilities ministered to by the diocesan team is Fort Dix, the largest single prison by number of inmates in the country. Other locations include the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, and the Central Reception and Assignment Facility and Jones Farm in Trenton. “I’ve learned that whenever God asks me to do something for someone else, it always turns out that I also receive his grace in the giving,” Okajima said. “And this is true for prison ministry as well. After a while, you get to know some of the incarcerated men and their stories. “I often drive home thinking, ‘There but for the Grace of God go I.’”
