RSS
Home
San Quentin: View from the inside part 2
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Photo selected for article by interviewee
Continuing on the topic of social justice in the prison system, in light of Christian faith...
I want society to remember the prison system. We want to be tough on crime. We hear on the news about terrible crimes committed by parolees and soon politicians are proposing bills to toughen penalties. Yes, it is important to strive to have the punishment be in some proportion to the gravity of the crime. But if we’re going to take people out of society as punishment, we assume responsibility for them. We house, feed, and care for those who commit crimes every second of every day they are in prison. We must keep them healthy and safe. And beyond their basic needs, in California we claim we also try to rehabilitate them. 13 billion dollars is spent on judiciary and criminal justice with 78% of that spent by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations. How do we pay so little attention to so much money? I can’t believe we’re paying attention to the prison system when we under a court order to release inmates because we cannot provide adequate health care. All this money and we’re still falling short.
But even more important than the money is the people. These are people in prison. At one point they were out in society with us and most will be back out in society with us again. We should care. Like it or not these men and women are our neighbors, both in the figurative sense that everyone is our neighbor and also in the actual sense that they could be living in the house next door. I want people to care about the prison system and the people inside the prison system. I believe social justice in this case would be to remember the prison system and to work to improve the prison system.
Another question comes to mind - how do you see the prison system in light of what Jesus and the prophets of the Bible have to say about setting captives free? Also, from your up-close point of view, do prisons do anything that is 'good', except for in some cases keeping truly dangerous criminals out of society?
The 'captives free' phrase certainly hits me differently these days. First off because I am flooded with mental pictures of San Quentin, the inmates, the yard, the hospital, and the different cell blocks. I remember one day a couple of inmates were looking out a window that faced the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. I walked up to them and asked what they were looking at thinking it would be something unusual like a fire boat or an accident on the bridge. A lifer in his 60’s said, “Freedom.” I didn’t know what to say and quietly walked away feeling embarrassed. Like many things in life, tangible experiences have such a different affect on understanding than theorizing.
But secondly, I have new, and certainly unexpected, opinions about parole. I think the parole system makes no sense. Parole is how the inmates become free. Most are released before the end of their sentences. I know there are huge, glaring examples of how poorly parolees are supervised. The reason for mistakes by parole agents is often they have too many parolees to supervise. But I really think many of the men I meet in prison are in prison for longer than the punishment is effective. You ask if prisons do anything good and I think they do. I think that sometimes it really serves these men to be removed from their lives. Their lives are often reinforcing the behaviors and patterns that lead to the situation that caused these men to go to prison. Taking time outside of the lives they were living allows them to reflect on their lives.
At San Quentin the men meet with counselors who have some minimal training in counseling. The primary concern for these counselors is to get the inmate situated to life at San Quentin. They try to find jobs for the inmates that appeal to them in some way, assess any educational needs of the inmate, and assess the risk the inmate is to themselves, to other inmates, and to guards. At San Quentin there are lots of outside groups than volunteer to teach classes to inmates. Some classes are educational, some to help them work through reasons for their crimes, or to be better fathers to their children, or almost anything else you can think of. I know that some inmates go to these classes just because it’s something to do to break of the monotony of their lives. But these are often avenues for these men to reflect. This time away from their lives on the outside offers a chance to establish new strategies to deal with life on the outside.
But we really do hold these men too long. Many life sentence inmates have been in prison so long they really understand how awful it is to life in prison. They know exactly what will happen to them if they commit a new crime. They are motivated to get out and stay out of prison. But they have trouble being approved for parole. The guys who do get parole are the short term inmates. The lifers have often been involved in the death of another person somehow, often directly taking someone's life. The short term inmates are thieves, drug dealers, passed bad checks, or physically hurt another person but did not kill them. The short term guys learn what prison is like but don’t have to sit and suffer in prison for years on end like the lifers. The short term guys know they will get out and often feel strengthened by being able to handle their time in prison. Spending time in prison becomes a badge of honor. Prison can feel like a slap on the wrist and therefore doesn’t really discourage them from committing new crimes. Paroling them sends the wrong message to them. So why do we parole the short term guys and not the lifers? We are setting the wrong captives free.
Life inside prison is hard and probably that it should be. Prison is supposed to be a punishment. But these men should be set free once keeping them out of society becomes a waste of their time. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. That is true for us living in society and for those living in prison. Freedom is the inmate’s goal and an inmate’s freedom should also be our goal.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
