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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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