Correcting Corrections

The racial disparity in the Wisconsin prison population is among the highest in the nation. For every 100,000 whites in the state, 400 are in jail and for every 100,000 blacks, 4,000 are in jail, so that when you visit a place like the Columbia County Correctional Facility it almost feels like you walk from a 90% white world into a 90% non-white world. This is just one indication that something needs correcting in our corrections system.

This week Janine and I went to spend a little time with a friend, Tony, who has been caught in the revolving door of Wisconsin corrections for years. The thing he needed prayer for more than anything else was depression. It's hard to not be depressed when you are living on the streets (though Tony is now staying with a friend), and it's hard not to live on the streets when so few will rent to someone with a criminal record unless they have lots of cash to put down, and it's hard to put down much cash when you can't even find minimum wage work.

Tony is stuck, and being stuck is depressing and being depressed increases the likelihood of drinking and then doing stupid things. To top it off, some Parole Officers have become jaded - probably not without cause. This makes it feel like Tony's PO is watching, waiting, even hoping to catch Tony in a mistake in order to send him back to jail (like being late for a parole meeting because of being at the doctor or because his bus was late). Sending Tony back to jail is no solution. Seeing his depression healed (which is related to so many other factors) is just one small step to bringing true restoration.

When I was in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, BC a couple of months ago I watched drugs being traded openly on the streets while cops rode around on bikes just trying to keep everyone safe and out of the rest of Vancouver. There is even a government facility in the neighborhood to help you shoot up safely. The philosophy of the Vancouver city government and of most corrections system is simply that of containment. It is an emphasis on quarantine not vaccine.

Like the Geresene demoniac (Mark 5) the human solution to aberrant behavior is to chain. Jesus comes to heal and restore. It may well be that we will always need to provide places of quarantine. But those of us who carry around the Spirit and authority of Christ have the vaccine. It's time we stop stockpiling Christ’s love and power by remaining in our safe enclaves and move out into places where we can regularly administer the kind of love in action that will bring healing to those whom society would simply quarantine. While Janine and I love hanging out with healthy people, Jesus said those who were well had no need of a physician (Matt 9:12). Our short visit with Tony is way too rare an occurrence in our lives. Could it be that we might help bring a corrective to our corrections system just by who we choose to tangle our lives up with?

Comments
Amanda's Gravatar Most of the people in vancouver who really care about the poor know that safe injection sites are valuable to those with addictions. It might be an issue of 'quarantine' but it's a better kind of quarantine than one that goes on behind closed doors (ie wisconson stats). People are still addicted, but they face a much lower chance of getting hepatitis and/or hiv. These sites are not attempts to cure or fix people. They help them stay alive and legitimize the humanity of an individual with an addiction - in a far better way than pulling them off the streets and forcing them into a jail or a detox program without their consent.

It's the same with marijuana (I can only assume that was the drug you saw being sold) - despite what the US gov't says, it's not going to kill anyone. On the fatalities scale,Alchohol is a much more dangerous substance. I'd much rather have the rcmp focusing on gang violence than someone selling a few ounces.

However, the usefulness of law enforcement in a functioning (or disfunctional) neighbourhood is another story. I fully believe that delegating these "problems" to a small group of people is seriously problematic and far from biblical. As long as we continue to see these issues in this framework, we're going to have those alarming statistics. It's not even that the system is broken, it's that it's completely untenable. And it is 100 percent fully our problem, and not the governments.
# Posted By Amanda | 5/25/09 2:43 AM
Scott's Gravatar Hi Amanda: I don't think I disagree with you. My main point is that not enough of us are invested in the lives of those who are in and out of jail and that th esolution is certainly not incarceration.

As to safe injection sites, I heard opinions on both sides from people of deep faith and conviction. I was visiting a community who believes in incarnational presence and have moved into the neighborhood to be neighbors. The guy leading me on the tour had lived a live of drugs and did not believe injection sites were helping.

The truth is that I am not involved in a practical, day to day way with people like Tony. Not that you or I are the solution, but cordoning off segments of society will solve very little in the long term. Jesus is not a program. He comes as his people plant themselves in desperate places.

Thanks for your input. Sounds like you've been invested in these communities and I thank God for that.

P.S. The drugs I saw being offered were in pill or powder form. They were not pot.
# Posted By Scott | 5/25/09 3:21 PM

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Books by Scott Bessenecker:
The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World's Poor

How to Inherit the Earth - coming in November
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