FAMILIES SHARING HOPE
  • Blog
  • Resource Links
  • Books
    • News to Make You Weep
  • Prayer Requests
  • Contact
  • Connecting with Community

praying for a better system

2/28/2015

0 Comments

 
Anyone who has interacted with the legal system knows frustration. People who are being held accountable for breaking the rules are interacting with people breaking rules. The entire time my son was involved in the legal system he (and we by extension) dealt with being told one thing only to have an entirely different thing happen. One time some kind of problem lead to him arguing with the person who came to remove his ankle bracelet because he was only half way through the term of confinement. 

And that is mild compared to changes in places of incarceration at unexpected times, erratic health care, lack of literacy programs and other training that can help equip these men and women for productive lives as parents, citizens and employees in the free world. Additionally, wildly divergent sentencing too often seems to depend on the sense of well-being of a judge or the re-election schedule of the prosecutor or the level of attention achieved by the defense attorney. And that does not even take into consideration false accusations leading to expensive trials and mangled reputations and even improper incarceration. 

But to understand the larger picture we need to consider some data:

1980 Federal prison population    21,000
2015 Federal prison population   222,000 or more than 10 times more

1980 USA population  226.5 million                      USA incarceration rate  .01%
2015 USA population  318.9 million                      USA incarceration rate  .07% is 7 times higher than 1980

And while all this cost is rising, the rate for major crime has been dropping for years.

And the cost to our country of all this is stunning: personal pain, live's derailed, disrupted families. Life is more dangerous and difficult for communities, law enforcement and prison staff. Even in just cold hard dollars this is obviously not working. Incarcerated people are not only expensive, they are not paying taxes and a criminal record does not improve employability so there will be fewer tax dollars and most costs to social service programs for years following incarceration.

Finally there has been a glimmer of light out of our nation's capital. The bipartisan Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections has been formed and J C Watts named chairman. The Prison Fellowship CEO (and the resources of Justice Fellowship) is a member along with a federal judge, a criminologist, a re-entry specialist and other stakeholders. The Prison Fellowship folks are praying. Please join us in praying for these folks as they seek to find better ways to conserve our most precious resource: our children who are paying the price for our fear and our stiff-necked approach of doing more of what does not work. 

An article on this program is available at http://www.prisonfellowship.org/2015/02/a-new-task-force-for-criminal-justice-reform/?spMailingID=10762776&spUserID=MTI0MjkyMzYyNTA3S0&spJobID=482069091&spReportId=NDgyMDY5MDkxS0
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    CHECK IT OUT:
    BOOKS TAB 
    ​News Tab


    For information on meetings use the "contact" button above or call Jann @ 816-896-9815


    Author

    Jann's son was incarcerated.  She longed for a community where she could connect with others dealing with similar issues.

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    January 2023
    April 2022
    March 2022
    July 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.