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.
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.
The platform of the American Solidarity Party echos these sentiments. The party, "is alarmed by increasing rates of arrest and incarceration. In enforcing laws against non-violent offenses, we must ensure vulnerable groups are not re-victimized by the criminal justice system.
ReplyDelete"We, therefore, support:
- Ending the privatization of law enforcement and penal institutions.
- Ending arbitrary legal requirements in sentencing for nonviolent offenses that result in long-term imprisonment, such as mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws.
- Prosecution and punishment of drug-related crimes that focuses on distribution, impaired performance, or endangerment, rather than possession and use.
- Redirecting funds allotted for the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of illicit drug users towards prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.
- Mandatory rehabilitation programs in lieu of imprisonment, to the extent that local jurisdictions determine that arresting illicit substance users for possession is practicable and a wise use of crime prevention resources."
[There more to it than that; I just provided some relevant highlights.]
I know a young man who became addicted to pornography and downloaded some file-sharing software. Unbeknownst to him, among the gobs of material that passed through his computer was child pornography. But law enforcement caught him and he was charged not only with possession of such material, but also distribution. The prosecutor refused to cut a plea deal. He will now spend years in prison and, when he is released, will be a registered sex offender for life. He has family who live near an elementary school; by law he will not even be allowed to visit their house because it is too close.
ReplyDeleteHe made some poor choices. He had an addition. But he was not a child predator. He does not need to be in prison; he needs help with his addiction. To make matters worse, at a time when he most needs his family's support, he is hours away from them and visits face multiple hurdles.
This is not an isolated case; I have both heard and read of similar cases.
Stories such as this have made me realize that we need to seriously relook at how and why we incarcerate, instead of assuming that being "tough on crime" is always the answer.