Missionaries of the Sacred

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia noted that “America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace.” The United States presently has the world’s largest inmate population in our prisons.

With 5% of the world’s population, our country [United States] now houses nearly 25% of the world’s  reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 760 inmates per 1000,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 1000,000. . . more than 5 million people who recently left jail  remain under “correctional supervision,” which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, jail, or on supervised release....Local state and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

For our purposes we will offer Catholic Social teaching on our penal system. Pope John Paul II noted that “Even time in prison does not escape God’s dominion.” From this perspective our penal system must be in “harmony with a Gospel vision of Christ identifying with the least of our fellow humans, particularly the confined and with the normative emphases in Catholic social thought.” Of course, we must begin with the dignity of the human person. As was noted earlier every human being is endowed with dignity and worth even if he/she be a prison. Anything which goes contrary to the “dignity and fundamental rights of the human person should be definitely abolished from national legislation, as should laws which deny prisoners religious freedom.” Our present Holy Father urges that we discover the face of Christ in each prisoner. (Cf. Matthew 35:36)

So how do we align our prison system with the Gospel vision? To be pro-life, we must abolish the death penalty. We must also ensure that prisoners are not abused and that they have access to health services when needed. We need to make sure that everyone has adequate legal representation to reduce the risk of wrongful conviction of those who cannot afford a lawyer. And after incarceration, we need to find ways to support and facilitate reintegration to society.