wfn.org | UCC/Resolution on 'business' of prisons

[powellb@ucc.org]

June 19, 1997
United Church of Christ
(216) 736-2222
William C. Winslow, press contact
(212) 870-2137
E-mail:  william.winslow@ecunet.org
Press Room, July 3-8
Room C110, Columbus Convention Center, Ohio
(614) 722-1216
On the Web:  http://www.ucc.org

[This is one in a series of releases previewing the
United Church of Christ's 1997 General Synod.  Future
releases will detail other agenda items.  The Synod
will draw an estimated 3,000 people, including some
700 voting delegates from 39 regional bodies of the
denomination.  On moral, social and theological
matters, the biennial Synod speaks to, and not for,
the UCC's 1.5 million members and 6,100 local
churches.  News coverage is welcome.  For information,
call the Cleveland number above.  During the General
Synod, news will be updated twice daily on a special
Synod section of the UCC home page (Web address
above).]

Church delegates to eye 'big business' of prisons

COLUMBUS, Ohio--The American prison system is big
business, with spending on jails and security
approaching national defense level expenditures.  Wall
Street floats high-profit construction bonds and
private companies vie to operate facilities. 
Meantime, prison populations are increasingly viewed
as pools of cheap labor.
      This shift from jails as places of correction to
places of profit disturbs three national agencies of
the United Church of Christ.  The UCC's Office for
Church in Society, Commission for Racial Justice and
Board for Homeland Ministries are bringing their
concerns to the denomination's biennial General Synod,
July 3-8 in Columbus.
      A proposed resolution to be considered by the
700-plus delegates condemns the rapid buildup of new
prisons and hopes to call attention in church and
society to the seemingly nonstop escalation of the
American prison population, now the world's 
largest.  It says the number of people in the U.S.
criminal justice system "will soon surpass the number
in higher education."
      Privatization of prison operations in recent
years has produced some ugly results.  The U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service hired an
outside company to run a detention facility in New
Jersey.  A riot broke out there amid allegations that
poorly trained guards mistreated the undocumented
immigrants in their care.
      The use of prisoners to do commercial firms'
work has also caused problems.  In Texas, prison
inmates entered sensitive sexual and personal health
data from a commercial marketer's national
questionnaire into computers, as part of the prison's
first and only private-sector contract.  Some of the
inmates, incarcerated for sexual crimes, subsequently
made sexually harassing telephone calls and wrote
sexually explicit letters to several female survey
respondents.
      Overall, "the violence of prison life promotes
violence rather than public safety," the proposed
resolution says in part.  It notes that by 2010, if
present trends continue, the majority of African-
American men will have been in the criminal justice
system at one time or another.  The resolution asks
why the modern penal system focuses on punishment and
degradation, rather than correction and
rehabilitation.
      Another proposed resolution, offered by the
UCC's Connecticut Conference, says the boom in prison
construction business is related to public attitudes
toward drug related offenses.  Jails are filled to
overflowing with people convicted of drug-related
crimes.  The proposed resolution says it's time to
look for alternative ways to deal with the problem and
suggests reduced sentences for minor offenses,
increased rehabilitation, drug treatment and
educational opportunities for prisoners, and
alternatives to incarceration.
      The United Church of Christ, with national
offices in Cleveland, has local congregations in the
United States and Puerto Rico.  It was formed by the
1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches
and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
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