07/09/00

Jubilee for Prisoners: freedom and the ninth of July

The last days of the month of June were marked by the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, celebrated solemnly by the Archdiocese at Soldier Field, and the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These feasts tell us of love that creates unity, of sacrifice that makes reconciliation possible.

Reconciliation and the freedom it brings are the heart of this Jubilee year. In the middle of the year, July 9 has been designated by the Pope as the Jubilee for prisoners. The auxiliary bishops and I will mark the day with visits to prisons and celebrations of the Eucharist. I will be at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica with the families and friends of those who are in prison.

Since July 9 falls so near July 4, our national independence day, the situation of prisoners and their families and of those who guard them brings poignancy to our prayers in this country as the universal church marks a Jubilee for prisoners. What does Independence Day change in the life of a prisoner? What can a religious Jubilee, a celebration of freedom, mean for those in prison? Frankly, I am not sure. So I asked someone who knows the situation of prisoners very well to give me a few of his reflections on the current situation. Father Larry Craig, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been involved in prison ministry for many years. Here are some of the ideas he shared with me:

“Societies have always been forced to remove some people who were a danger to themselves or others, who just could not live with others. …Leaders in some societies have removed and isolated some people because they were a threat politically. Individuals and groups have ostracized others because of prejudice, fear, greed, hatred, guilt.

“Thirty years ago, Cook County was locking up about 1,500 men and women and 250 children in its detention facilities. We couldn’t ‘fix’ them and we asked forgiveness that we couldn’t help them become part of society. And we were present to them as the Gospel demands.

“Today, there are more than 11,000 adults and children locked up every day in the jails of Cook and Lake Counties—more than 100,000 annually. More than 45,000 are locked up each day in Illinois prisons. Two million people are incarcerated each day in this country.

“Crime has not increased. In fact, crime has decreased over the last years in almost every category.

“Most people are detained in county jails because they can’t afford the bond necessary for their release. (People who are) very serious threats to society are usually denied bond. All others are given a bond that should guarantee their appearance in court. The poor are held in jail awaiting trial because they can’t pay the bond. Thousands of other people are able to post bond and continue to work, provide for their families and seek proof of their innocence while they await their court hearings.

“More than 75 percent of the people admitted to our jails have serious drug and/or alcohol problems. Most read at the level of middle grade school children. The majority come from single-parent families. Too many were abused as children. Very few come from families that regularly practiced any religious faith. Though accused of crimes themselves, most have also been victims of crime. They are a ‘hidden population’ who have no voice or advocate, for whom only their families care.

“If crime is down, why are we locking up so many more people? Prison building and staffing have taken money away from alternatives to incarceration and programs of rehabilitation. Drug laws that treat the abuser as a criminal, ‘truth in sentencing’ laws that take discretion away from judges, an overcrowded judicial and criminal system, the movement to try more children as adults force the system to hold more people for longer periods of time. Now, whole areas of the state are dependent economically on jails and prisons which have become a billion-dollar business nationally.

“The Pope has called attention to the situation of prisoners. While he may voice concern more for the situation of political prisoners and refugees, we need to look at (those) whom we are locking up locally. From a practical point of view, almost every prisoner of today will someday be someone’s next-door neighbor. What kind of neighbor would we expect (to have in) a person who’s been locked up for years under less-than-human circumstances, with little nor no training or education, cut off from hope and love?…”

In his message for the Jubilee for prisoners, the Holy Father asks that prisoners’ sentences be reduced to mark the jubilee: “Acceptance of this proposal by the competent authorities would not only encourage prisoners to look to the future with new hope but would also be an eloquent sign at the dawn of the Third Christian Millennium.” Prisons, the Pope reminds us, should not be places of idleness and vice, places where prisoners are depersonalized and deprived of the hope of redemption. “…(S)ubstantial progress has been made in conforming the penal system both to the dignity of the human person and to the effective maintenance of public order. But the unease and strains felt in the complex world of the administration of justice and, even more, the suffering attached to prison life show that there is still much to be done.”

Prisons have a long history because society has a right to defend itself and its members from those who are dangerous to others. If imprisonment, however, is to be anything other than an act of vengeance which engenders hatred in the hearts of those imprisoned, then concern for prisoners, especially for their spiritual growth and freedom in Christ, should be a concern of all disciples of Christ. On July 9, please celebrate the Jubilee by remembering those imprisoned in your prayers.

God bless you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

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