It is vital to remember people behind bars also were made in God’s image

It is vital to remember people behind bars also were made in God’s image

A look at mass incarceration in Alabama — third in a series

By Martha Simmons
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist

The Bible is pretty clear when it comes to reminding the faithful to seek justice, love others and minister to prisoners. But for the average churchgoer, mass incarceration might seem a foreign concept, something far removed from everyday life.

However, those who study the human and social consequences of imprisonment and apply biblical perspectives to those issues say mass incarceration reverberates throughout American society with staggering human and social costs. It is, they contend, the key civil rights struggle of our time.

Some stunning statistics — gathered by the Billy Graham Center’s Sentencing Project and Institute for Prison Ministries — drive that concept home. Because of American mass incarceration practices, it’s becoming more and more common for someone you know — or even yourself — to wind up behind bars.

If you were born in 2001, according to their study, the likelihood of being imprisoned at some point in your life breaks out this way:

• 1 in 9 of all men, but …
• 1 in 3 if you’re black
• 1 in 6 if you’re Latino
• 1 in 17 if you’re white

• 1 in 56 of all women, but …
• 1 in 18 if you’re black
• 1 in 45 if you’re Latina
• 1 in 111 if you’re white

People of color make up 37 percent of the U.S. population but 67 percent of the prison population, the Institute for Prison Ministries reports. Studies show that African Americans are much more likely to be arrested and convicted than whites, and face much stiffer sentences for the same crimes. Poverty and lack of education found in non-white communities also contribute to the problem.

Disproportionate burden

Although nonwhites bear a disproportionate burden of incarceration, mass incarceration cuts across all demographics. The United States’ overall incarceration rate has increased 500 percent over the past 40 years, according to the institute, driven primarily by new “tough on crime” laws and policies.

Drug offenses represent the vast majority of prison population increases. “Today there are more people behind bars for a drug offense than the number of people who were in prison or jail for any crime in 1980,” the institute’s researchers report.

That holds true in Alabama as well. The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) reports that the top two convictions landing inmates in state prisons are for: 1. Possession of a controlled substance, and 2. Drug manufacturing, trafficking and distribution. More than 4,300 new inmates were admitted to state prisons in 2017 on those charges alone. Not surprisingly some 75–80 percent of Alabama’s 21,000 custodial prisoners also have a documented history of substance abuse. In response ADOC has implemented what it calls “the largest substance abuse program in the State of Alabama,” but the program is able to address only a fraction of addicted inmates with various treatment and aftercare programs.

Also contributing to the ballooning prison population are harsh sentencing laws such as mandatory minimum sentences and “three strikes” laws that mandate a life sentence for anyone convicted of a third felony, even if they were nonviolent property offenses. Judges are meting out longer sentences overall, and there’s been a historic increase in life sentences. Combined with cutbacks to parole, people are staying in prison longer.

Perfect storm

Together, these factors form a perfect storm of overcrowded and often violent prisons warehousing people with untreated drug problems and mental illness, while inmates’ families languish at home in poverty and without hope or community support.

It’s these overarching social justice issues that the Institute for Prison Ministries wants people of faith to consider when they think of prison ministries, not just visiting inmates behind bars. The institute is calling on evangelical Christians to lead a human rights movement to end what they term “epidemic” mass incarceration. To that end the institute joined forces with The Gospel Coalition, a network of evangelical churches, to offer a free online course entitled “The Gospel and Mass Incarceration” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/course/mass-incarceration/#what-is-mass-incarceration). In it a prison missions-minded participant can get a crash course on the causes and effects of mass incarceration and how they can serve.

So why should Christians be concerned not only with prisoners, but also the myriad social justice issues caused by mass incarceration?

First and foremost is because the Bible says so.

“If Christians want to take the entirety of the Bible seriously, then you can’t avoid matters of justice,” said Vince Bacote, director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College, where the Billy Graham Center is based. “It’s easy to think about matters of justice in terms of thinking about law and order, but if you’re really going to be thinking about law and order all the way down, that also needs to include how are we stewarding things like the way that we go about justice, when people are arrested and go all the way through to deciding whether people are in prison, how long they’re in prison, what the conditions are like for them in prison, the fact that they are human beings, irrespective of whether they’ve committed crimes or not. If we’re really committed to justice all the way down, to me, it seems unavoidable.”

Ultimately one of the biggest challenges is to remember that a person behind bars — whether a hapless addict caught with an illegal substance or a serial murderer — is created in the image of God, Bacote said.

“If you really believe this Bible, nowhere does it say that people have forfeited their being an image bearer for anything. You know, whether you’re thinking about someone like John Wayne Gacy or whether you’re thinking about a kid who took a piece of candy, there’s not a forfeiture of them being an image bearer and the fundamental dignity that people have,” Bacote said.

He added: “Do you take Matthew 25 seriously? If you take Matthew 25 seriously, you cannot avoid this issue.”

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What does the Bible say?

The Bible has plenty to say related to prison ministries. Here’s a sampling of Scripture provided by Prison Fellowship, which trains and inspires churches and communities — inside and outside of prison — to support the restoration of those affected by incarceration. (For a more comprehensive selection, go to https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/training-resources/in-prison/ministry-basics/what-bible-says-about-prison-ministry/.)

Following in Jesus’ footsteps
• Matthew 25:34–40
• Hebrews 13:1–3

Sharing spiritual freedom
• Isaiah 42:6–7
• Isaiah 61:1–3
• Luke 4:17–19

Transformation
• Psalm 66:10–12
• Psalm 68:5–7
• Psalm 69:33

(Source: Martha Simmons)