Where Is the Christian Call for Criminal Justice Reform?

Yesterday I happened upon a short biography of St. Maud (also known as Matilda), a 10th century queen whose charitable works included visiting prisoners and seeking clemency for the repentant.

On Sunday I learned that Virginia has over 30,000 people in its state prisons. (This study, from January 2018, puts the figure at 37,813, to be precise.) Housing all those prisoners is not cheap. In the last few years the cost has been in the rage of $21,299 to $25,000 per prisoner per year, depending on who did the counting and when. That comes out to something like $824,010,613 a year, though some estimates have put it above $1.5 billion. Many of these are non-violent offenders.

And the State of Virginia does not spend a dime on chaplains. Our states prison chaplains are all privately funded.

More important that the precise statistics is the Christian attitude toward those in prison. Jesus is clear about what that attitude ought to be: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was... in prison and you visited me.’" (Mt 25: 31-36) Since its earliest days, the Christian community has held up the importance of this corporal work of mercy.

Too often contemporary American political discussions, even among Christians, characterize prisoners as pariahs who deserve what they everything they get. Or we ignore them all together.

The state has a duty to protect society, but within that broad mandate, it seems to me that Christians must work for several things:

- First, insistence that prisoners be treated with dignity, as human beings. True, many of these are troubled and troublesome individuals, but challenges should be met in ways that address real problems rather than demonizing our brothers and sisters. This includes caring for their basic needs, not only in terms of physical health, but also emotional and spiritual.

- Second, transferring some of the money currently spent on prisons to addiction recovery and other programs that can help offenders get back on their feet and reintegrate as members of society.

- Third, demanding that the criminal justice system - not least capital punishment - be fair and transparent. We must ensure that the poor, the uneducated, and other vulnerable populations are not being caught in a system they do not understand and cannot navigate.

It is high time that criminal justice reform was a major issue for Christians.