March 25, 2014

By Father John Crossin, OSFS

Solidarity with those imprisoned, people who Pope Francis would describe as on the margins, has become an ecumenical priority. When they are incarcerated, human beings made in the image and likeness of God are often forgotten, downgraded, given exorbitant sentences and not offered real opportunities to reform.

These and many other sad conclusions came to me after spending three long and intense days studying mass incarceration at the annual meeting of Christian Churches Together. The 80 delegates of the 40 churches and church organizations that make up this broad-based ecumenical coalition met in Newark, New Jersey in February. As I listened to the depressing data being presented I concluded that the change, which is already in the political winds, should be "fast-tracked."

The press release of CCT gives the basic conclusions of our study days and lots of startling documentation. The release from the USCCB refers to our own Catholic teaching about respecting the life of prisoners.

One insight that has stayed with me in the weeks since our annual meeting is the importance of family, friends and clergy to those who are incarcerated. Even a single visit by a priest or pastor can have a profound impact. The imprisoned appreciate the love and concern of church leaders. The visits of family and friends, often made difficult by distance and cost, are highly correlated with success after the prison term is over. Relationships count. Personal visits give people hope.

We carry the effects of our past dehumanization of people of color. We must be vigilant to avoid unjust social structures, "structures of sin," as Blessed John Paul II would say. Our current system impacts the poor, the marginalized and immigrants disproportionately.

For several years now, the member churches of CCT have concerned themselves with poverty. An initial consensus statement on poverty has been followed by related statements on immigration and racism (with a study guide for parishes). One thing that must bring Christians together is love for the poor. By extending their concern to the incarcerated, CCT has found still another avenue for that love.

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Father John Crossin is an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales and head of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Activities. Original post: http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/ecumenism-on-margins.html

"Part jeremiad, part gripping crime thriller,"* Don't Shoot is David M. Kennedy's chronicle of his decades-long crusade to solve one of America's most pressing and shameful social problems. Kennedy, who engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the 1990s, cutting youth homicide by two-thirds at the height of the crack epidemic, reveals the history and the strategy behind his commonsense yet revolutionary approach to ending crime. He has refined an approach in which everyone-gang members, drug dealers, cops, and neighbors-comes together in a giant community meeting, an intervention and an affirmation of a shared desire for safety and peace. The proof is in the miraculous results. Don't Shoot offers a bold way forward in combating one of our country's most intractable social problems. (*Boston Globe)

Website: Reentry MythBusters

Reentry MythBusters are a first product of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council. They are essentially fact sheets, designed to clarify existing federal policies that affect formerly incarcerated individuals and their families in areas such as public housing, access to benefits, parental rights, employer incentives, Medicaid suspension/termination, and more. As you will see, some federal laws and policies are narrower than is commonly perceived, as is the case with public housing and food assistance benefits. In several policy areas, states and localities have broad discretion in determining how policies are applied and/or have various opt-out provisions for states (TANF and child support are examples here). In some cases, statutory barriers do not exist at all or are very limited, as is the case with federal hiring. In fact, some federal policies and practices contain incentives for assisting the formerly convicted population (i.e., federal bonding and tax incentives for employers hiring formerly convicted individuals).

Link to website HERE 

Got to website HERE