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Prison chaplains' conference
From
ENS@ecunet.org
Date
01 Jun 2000 12:34:01
For more information contact:
James Solheim
jsolheim@dfms.org
212/922-5385
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens
2000-112
Prison chaplains' conference hears a new definition of
justice
by Kathryn McCormick
(ENS) Sharing stories, networking, worshipping
together, nearly 80 men and women who carry out one of the
church's more difficult ministries--with jail inmates and
state prisoners, including those on Death Row--gathered in
Indianapolis May 19 and 20, and learned how they might help
the church look at crime and punishment in a new way.
A criminal justice expert described the concept of
restorative justice, urging the ministers, both lay and
ordained, to see their work as including not just the
offender in prison, but also his or her family, the victim
of the crime and his or her family, and the community at
large.
Before that talk, though, George Packard, suffragan
bishop of the Armed Forces, who also oversees the church's
prison and hospital chaplains, began the conference by
asking participants what "stirred them," what "nutritious
moments" allowed them to continue their work, "because this
kind of work that you are committing your lives to is not
filled with happy moments. It can be, but there's no
promise of that." He asked the group to share some
reflections on the moments that drew them toward their
ministry and caused them to glimpse how important it can
be.
Members of the group identified moments when they
noticed the spiritual and emotional growth of the inmates
with whom they had worked, perceiving the need to keep
prisoners' families together, seeing a request from inmates
for very simple items that would ease their stay, and many
other nurturing moments that had encouraged and supported
them.
The exercise helped participants to remind each other
of the depth of their commitment to their ministry.
A new, holistic approach
In his speech outlining restorative justice, Dr. Tom
Beckner, director of the Center for Justice and Urban
Leadership at Taylor University in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
said that, first of all, it is not a program.
"It is a whole new way of thinking about crime and the
way it works. It's a holistic approach," he said. "In
Western cultures we tend to divide justice into neat little
divisions--criminal, social, economic, racial, we hear
about all different kinds of justice. But people of faith
don't see that. The idea is more full. For us as
Christians, the focus is on a biblical concept, shalom."
Although shalom, a Hebrew word, is often translated as
meaning peace, it is not simply the absence of conflict.
The shalom in Scripture takes in the idea of harmony,
fulfillment, and of wholeness, "an ideal state where
security, prosperity, righteousness pervade," Beckner said,
"and where right relationships exist."
This is the sort of peace we strive for in restorative
justice, he said. The system in place now is skewed in only
one direction, toward get-tough, retributive, offender-
based actions that do not restore shalom.
Restorative justice is victim-based or community-
based. It focuses not on the offender but on the harm that
has been done.
"Crime, at its essence, is a relational issue,"
Beckner said. "Crime injures victims. And people who commit
crimes not only are doing destructive things, they are
violating the community." If members of the community are
forced to curtail their activities at night, put bars on
their windows or alter their travel routes, their peace,
their shalom, is disturbed. Restorative justice tries to
recognize that.
Crime is a conflict
The old way of looking a crime, Beckner said, is to
define it as the violation of a law. Under restorative
justice, crime is seen primarily as a conflict between
individuals that results in injury to the victim, the
community and perhaps to the offender. Only secondarily is
crime a violation of law.
The current system of law, shaped by our history,
discourages people from taking responsibility for their
actions, distances them from their victims through actions
by their attorneys and sit isolated in prisons.
"Then you and I wonder why we find people locked away
who somehow think they are the victims," Beckner said. In
fact, many offenders become victims of the process.
In restorative justice, it is essential that people
take responsibility for their actions early on in the
process, and not just legal responsibility, he said.
"Restorative justice is not soft on crime. On the contrary,
we try to get people to lay claim to what they have done.
You can never get back to healing if people continue a
thought process that doesn't include accountability, which
includes a responsibility to try to make things right, to
heal.
"What we're interested in is if you do the crime, you
have to learn how to fix it," he added. Doing time may not
bear much relationship to the crime. "Offenders are moral
agents, and they're acting as part of our community, part
of us."
They must be made to see what damage they have done,
the consequences of their behavior and what role they have
in repairing the damage. Shalom cannot be restored until
some effort has been made to repair the harm.
The current system is relatively ineffectual in this.
In a later appearance during the conference, Beckner noted
that a survey showed that almost all the participants
worked nearly exclusively with offenders, but not with
victims or in community programs.
A need to refocus
"Those of us who have vested interests in certain ways
of dealing with offenders may have to refocus," he said.
For example, chaplains may bring an offender to Christ, but
when they proclaim that person a new creature the church
can be skeptical in return. If the church, and the
community were involved from the beginning of the
offender's case, it would be more eager for a role later
on, Beckner said. That is why it is essential to get
churches involved early on.
He told the chaplains, "We're going to have to link
ourselves with people in communities. We cannot work in
isolation. We'll all have to do business a little
differently."
First must come a reshaping of the criminal justice
system, creating a way in which the victim, the community,
the offender and the system work together. We must also
convince people that amends can be made, shalom can be
restored, no one is totally disposable.
Noting that different circumstances will mean that
parts of this new paradigm won't work with cookie-cutter
precision, Beckner said, "It doesn't mean we shouldn't keep
working with the model. Where we can make it happen, God's
peace can come to people."
He emphasized, too, that churches, which for the most
part have shrunk from reaching to victims of crime, must
learn better ways to comfort and support them.
Communities also have a role, he said. They may not be
able to keep order without police help, but they are key to
restoring peace by participating in program such as
Neighborhood Watch.
List of actions
In other action, participants heard an impassioned
talk by the Rev. Diane Corlett of Raleigh, North Carolina,
director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.
Describing her group's frustrations in dealing with
officials of North Carolina, which retains the death
penalty, she urged those at the conference to work to see
that the penalty is eliminated across the country.
Conference participants later recorded their support
for a resolution to be brought before the Episcopal
Church's General Convention in July seeking a reaffirmation
of the church's stand against the death penalty and calling
for an immediate moratorium on executions.
By the time the conference ended, participants had
come up with a long list of actions they could take when
they returned home. Many of the suggestions involved
speaking with persons in the criminal justice system and
talking with community members to develop better
partnerships across the system.
--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Episcopal
Church's Office of News and Information.
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