wfn.org | Prison Ministry conference calls for moratorium on death penalty

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2001-109

Prison Ministry conference calls for moratorium on death penalty 

by Val Hymes

     (ENS)The atmosphere surrounding the Timothy McVeigh execution is part of a 
"violence mindset" that has infected society, Bishop George E. Packard told the 
Sixth National Prison Ministry Conference of the Episcopal Church in Indianapolis 
May 4-6.

     Packard, Bishop Suffragan to the Armed Services, Healthcare and Prison 
Ministries, said the May 16 execution furor over the Oklahoma City bomber, which 
has even led to the sale of commemorative T-shirts in Terre Haute, "is another 
'Survivor' series. As soon as it's gone, it will be forgotten."

     But the nearly 80 lay and clergy conference participants from across the 
nation promised not to forget. Noting that "whole nation is intensely focused" on 
the execution, they signed a petition calling for an "immediate nationwide 
moratorium of the death penalty."  The conferees promised to raise their voices, 
both in dialogue and in political action, and to press all Episcopalians to work 
vigorously to abolish executions, which they decried as "the outrage of state-
sanctioned homicides." 

     "What quantity of energy will it take to get this society to stop being a 
death culture?" Packard asked. 

     The bishop called on the church to act more forcefully on all criminal 
justice issues, stressing the enormity of the need for prison ministries. Calling 
them "members of our family," he pointed out that 16 million people are affected 
- the two million who are incarcerated, their families, the families of the 
victims and those on parole or probation. 

     One more step in tragedy

     The Very Reverend Robert Giannini, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, opened 
the conference by announcing that the cathedral would join with the people of 
Oklahoma City at noon May 16 by holding special prayers "to ask for the presence 
of God in the midst of our human frailty." That day, he added, "is not about 
justice. It is not about closure. It's just one more step in the tragedy."

     The imminent execution in nearby Terre Haute added an intensity to the 
conference as participants focused on ways to help prisoners, victims, ex-
offenders, families and communities.

     Tom Hart, director of the church's Office of Government Relations in 
Washington, challenged popular myths about the death penalty--that it deters 
crime, is fair and cost effective, and that law enforcement officials support it. 
"Public opinion is shifting," he said. The McVeigh case is a "tragedy ... with a 
silver lining. A moment has been created in the public discourse. People are 
talking about the issue."    

     Hart said we can change the system, but by "organizing, not philosophizing." 
He recommended that churches schedule letter-writing sessions during coffee 
hours; form coalitions with "quirky, interesting" organizations and people; 
arrange visual events like "candlelight vigils" for television and news 
photographers and audible activities, like bell-ringing, for radio stations. 

     The conferees developed action plans to follow up resolutions passed by the 
General Convention until there are results. The Rev. Jackie Means, director of 
the Episcopal Church's Prison and Law Enforcement Ministries and the conference 
chair, said, "We've been passing resolutions since the 1980s on these issues and 
you see where we are."

     Wake-up call

     Packard reported that the church's Jubilee ministries--activities involving 
freeing prisoners, feeding the hungry, taking good news to the poor--have a 
strong advocate in Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold/

     "I'm discovering gold everywhere," said the Rev. Canon Carmen B. Guerrero, 
the church's Jubilee Ministries officer. Ministering to prisoners is like 
"singing the Lord's song in a foreign land," (Ps. 137) she said. "Inmates face 
the loss of human rights, the loss of family, the loss of dignity ...  This is a 
wake-up call. A Sunday morning service is not enough. It's not enough to provide 
social services.  They need to come home, into the family, into the church."

     Bishop Francisco Duque-Gomez of Colombia said that, in his country, the 
jails are only "places to hold bodies," put there simply because "someone decided 
they were guilty." No new jails have been built there in 50 years, he said.  It 
is a process of  "degradation and slow death ... torture chambers." 

     A success story

     Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, once known as 
"the bloodiest prison in America," told how the biggest of the nation's prisons 
has turned into one of its most progressive institutions. 

     The change has been possible by offering work in farming and ship-building, 
a full menu of religious and educational programs, a toy and bike repair hobby 
shop, a rodeo, craft fair, about 30 clubs instead of gangs, and a nationally 
recognized radio station and magazine. A hospice program is run by inmates who 
"help others die with dignity."

     The prison has 5,000 inmates; 85 percent of them will die there of natural 
causes, he said, adding that inmates carefully craft the coffins for their peers.

     Newcomers have a choice of going with a gang or with the Christians. "The 
gang leaders get to be toilet orderlies," the warden tells them. "Even the 
atheists want to go with the Christians."

     The lack of violence in the institution he attributes to "good food, good 
praying, good medicine, good playing." When an inmate must die by lethal 
injection, Cain said he holds his hands and prays with him, telling the doomed 
man, "The next face you see will be Jesus."

     "It's what government does. I'm the paid fall guy," he said of the 
executions. "It's better to do it as a Christian, the right way." 

     His best advice for those in prison ministry: "When you say you're going to 
come and visit, you better. The inmates are looking for to you to fail them."

     The conference closed Sunday with a service including a homily by Stuart O. 
Simms, Maryland's secretary of public safety and correctional services. Simms, a 
member of Packard's advisory council for prison ministry, warned of an increasing 
growth of hatred and vengeance and a lack of tolerance. He criticized the "race 
to incarcerate" and praised programs that humanize inmates. 

     The prison ministry conference, he said, is one way to help move society 
"from revenge to rehabilitation ... from retribution to reconciliation."

     --Val Hymes wrote this report for the web site of the Prison Ministry Task 
Force of the Diocese of Maryland.