Rethinking Prisons: A Christian Response
Historically in this country attitudes to prisons can often be summed up as “out of sight, out of mind”, with many people taking the approach that crime should be dealt with swiftly and those responsible safely locked away. But as Christians we need to engage with the criminal justice system and respond to those affected by it and caught up in it. The Bible speaks about our call to seek justice for the oppressed and to care for the vulnerable. It speaks about prisoners and our responsibilities to identify with them, visit them and care for them. So as Christians we are compelled to understand our prison system, particularly in a country that relies so heavily on imprisonment as a response to crime.
Along with Scotland, England and Wales have the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe; our prison population has increased by 70% in the last 30 years, but the level of crime hasn’t. In fact according to the National Audit Office there is no consistent correlation between prison numbers and levels of crime. We often think of prison as being reserved for the most serious offences, yet large numbers of people are imprisoned for non-violent offences. Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are over-represented in the prison system and the odds of someone receiving a custodial sentence is directly linked to their ethnic group. Prison itself has not proven to cut crime effectively, with 48% of those in prison going on to reoffend within 1 year of release, which goes up to 64% for those serving sentences of less than a year. Deaths in prison have almost doubled in the last decade; assaults have increased, and in 2019 alone there were over 60,000 incidents of self-harm. For a number of years prisons have been overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed.
We don’t agree on what prisons are for
How do we make sense of this picture? There are at least four key root causes that have led to the current state of the prison system that should inform our thinking; the first is that we don’t agree on what prisons are actually for. Hebrews 13:3 exhorts us to “remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are ill-treated as if you yourselves were suffering”. But so often society views someone who has committed a crime as “other”. It’s this separation that can too often dictate the view of what prison is for and what it looks like. Broadly speaking there are four key reasons cited for imprisonment: punishment, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation. Punishment is usually retributive and argues that prison should be a harsh experience; however, controlling people’s behaviour based on fear and degradation is not transforming. Deterrence argues that a tough response to crime puts other people off but doesn’t take into account the chaotic nature and impulsivity that often surrounds crime. Incapacitation focuses on getting offenders off the streets but doesn’t factor in the majority of people being released back into society, often having been exposed to more criminality. Rehabilitation focuses on behavioural changes in a person and has increasingly been acknowledged as providing the potential for change, but it requires investment rather than cuts and is somewhat limited by the very environment of prison.
Responding to the crime but ignoring the contributing issues
The second root cause for us to consider is that society and the justice system usually only respond to the crime but can often ignore the issues that contribute to someone’s offending. Prison as a response to crime often cannot deal effectively with the high rate of addictions amongst those in prison - 66% of women and 38% of men in prison report committing offences to get money to buy drugs. Or the third of the prison population who have a learning difficulty. Or the numbers of perpetrators who have been victims of crime themselves. While none of these issues justify crime, they do help to formulate the most appropriate response to crime as well as enable us to view each individual as a person.
Lack of investment in alternatives to prison
The third root cause for the current state of the prison system is that there has not been enough investment in alternative responses to crime. Despite the fact that community sentences have a lower reoffending rate than short prison sentences, community sentences have in fact been cut rather than increased. Restorative justice - which is defined by the Restorative Justice Council as bringing “those harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward” - has proven to be an effective response to crime. Those who have been part of restorative justice processes reoffend less and both victims and offenders often report satisfaction from the experience. However, restorative justice approaches can be expensive in the short term and are not always publicised or made available.
Lack of support on release
The fourth root cause for the state of our prison system is the lack of support many people experience after release, with many experiencing difficulties finding positive and supportive community, somewhere to live and a job. High numbers of people enter prison from an unstable living situation and others lose their accommodation whilst in prison. Half of people when asked said they would not consider employing an offender or ex-offender and many job application forms ask about criminal convictions before the person has even had a chance to get to interview, often removing them from the selection process immediately. These factors contribute to the high reoffending rates that all too often see people returning to prison again and again.
The Church’s role
The challenges of our prison system can be overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable. But we serve a God of justice and mercy, and as the Church we carry the ultimate response of hope and life in Jesus Christ. As Christians we can affect change by getting involved in prison ministry, by supporting people leaving prison, and by speaking up about the issues within the criminal justice system itself.
Our vision for prison ministry within prisons is recorded in Matthew 25: “I was in prison and you visited me…I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me”. But prison ministry doesn’t stop at the prison gates. As church, we are called to live out our faith, to demonstrate the love of Jesus through both our words and our actions. This means that our churches should be places of welcome and support, where those who have left prison can find a family. As the Apostle Paul showed us, nobody is beyond redemption and true transformation in Jesus is possible, as he changed radically from persecuting and terrorising Christians to following Jesus and proclaiming the gospel. But it took the testimony of Barnabas to convince others of his true conversion. Men and women leaving prison need a few more like Barnabas to stand with them!
As Christians we need to equip ourselves with the knowledge of what our prison system is actually like; we need to be unafraid of engaging in discussions that aren’t always straightforward or easy; we need to be actively proclaiming God’s incredible justice and mercy from our pulpits and around our dinner tables; and we need to strive for change in the prison system. If we truly believe in acting justly and loving mercy, our faith needs to be lived out in demonstrating God’s justice of restoration and transformation.
Facts and statistics cited in this article were taken from the Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile Winter 2019, available at prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Publications/Factfile
Catherine De Souza, 3rd June 2020
