Getting Out: A Restorative Approach to Prison Ministry

Chapter 1

Overview

Introduction to the Problem and purpose of this ministry project

I never imagined that I would be involved with prison ministry. Moreover, I would never have thought my overall ministry would go in the direction it went. Unfortunately, I created issues and barriers that have limited but shaped my ministry. In 2010, I plead guilty to my first felony. I subsequently lost my job and had trouble finding new work. I still had all the expenses of before, but now I was a convicted felon. Therefore, I reoffended again and again. Finally, I ended up in prison. My failure was a result of poor planning and not relying on family help available. I felt I had no choice. Yet, that was not the case. While there are problems in the social system, I came to recognize that my crimes were against myself and the system. When released, I recognized I did not want to return to prison. However, I ran into more trouble finding work than ever before. I recognized that I was certainly not alone and these problems and many others need to be considered within ministry.

My initial personal experience with prison ministry, while I was in prison, was enlightening. But not enlightening the way the prison ministry probably had hoped. I found the programs that were offered to inmates to be limited and solely focused on salvation or conversion. Many people would parole out or end their sentence and would face all the problems I encountered and more. Many people did not have the resources I had available. Furthermore, I recognized many inmates were not prepared to reenter society. Unfortunately, many of the people who exit prison reoffend and will reenter. This is not the life God intended for anyone. What exists as prison ministry today has to go further. It has to better equip people to address the social system to which the person will be returning. I hope to contribute to that effort. I wanted to create an approach to ministry that will foster a balance between individual responsibility with regard to sin, crime, and wrong doing, along with addressing the social responsibilities necessary to restore the persons incarcerated as a productive member of society.

Context

Something needs to be done to address some of the problems people face when transitioning out of incarceration. This book proposes a restorative prison ministry that engages an expanded approach that will draw upon the social gospel, restorative justice, and a communal contextual model of pastoral care, primarily utilizing concepts in Bowen Family Systems Theory in order to more effectively address offender reentry into society. In developing this approach, I will criticize the traditional model of prison ministry that focuses on the individualistic gospel that favors retributive justice and relies upon an individualistic model of clinical pastoral care. I wish to answer the question: Is recidivism the result of a failure of nerve¹ in high anxiety or high pressure situations and would a communal contextual pastoral care approach focusing on restorative justice and the social gospel lower the recidivism rate?

Understanding the problem

How can prison ministries better equip someone leaving prison to face the challenges those newly released face? This book focuses on the Alabama department of corrections (ADOC) and persons in Alabama. There are a lot of problems within the ADOC. People are being released back into society unprepared for the challenges they will face. Unfortunately, prison ministries are not helping people convicted of crimes beyond individual pastoral care and salvation. Regrettably, there is not a recidivism statistic specifically for those involved in prison ministry programs. Instead, the only information available is the ADOC’s reported overall recidivism rate of 31.5%² This writing will address the ADOC’s problems with overcrowding, recidivism, and the failure of individual pastoral care within prison ministry for people transitioning out of prison.

Overcrowded

Prisons in Alabama are overpopulated. The ADOC is overwhelmed with the number of incarcerated persons. In their 2017 annual report, the ADOC reported a population of 27,803 inmates, 21,213 are in an actual prison. The remaining are either in a contract bed in another facility, serving time in another state, or involved in a supervised release program.³ These statistics does not include people on probation, or in county or city jails awaiting their day in court. National trends seem worse. As of 2011, more than 7.3 million adults in the United States are under some form of supervision by state, local, or federal criminal justice systems, including probation, jail, prison, and parole.⁴ The data is quite clear, the criminal justice system has a far reach both nationally as well as statewide.

Traditional prison ministry is overwhelmed by the sheer number of people incarcerated within the ADOC. While traditional prison ministry makes an effort to build relationships with each individual, it is incredibly difficult. Therefore, the various traditional prison ministries take an easier approach that focuses solely on the incarcerated individual’s salvation. Traditional prison ministries usually come to the prison and leads various worship services that focus on a broad look at sin, and how God can save prisoners from their wretched lives. This approach cheapens grace because it focuses on obvious issues and offers a simple solution that doesn’t promise much change.

Recidivism

This is an alternative approach to prison ministry that may help with recidivism. Recidivism happens when people released from prison do not have adequate resources available to function in society. So they relapse into previous dysfunctional or destructive behavior and return to prison. Alabama is recognizing their current correctional system is broken. Their facilities are outdated and in ill repair, and overcrowded. These problems are well known. In a news report, the ADOC commissioner, Jeff Dunn stated, Alabama’s prison facilities are not conducive to educational and treatment programs needed to prepare inmates for their eventual release from prison. He said 95 percent of prisoners will return to their communities.⁵ In that same story, as he was petitioning for better facilities, he mentioned that the department is unequipped to provide the care inmates need to transition out.⁶ In their annual report, ADOC reveal 14,200 people were released from the ADOC. However, this number includes escapes and death.⁷ Unfortunately, no matter how fast the criminal justice system grows, it does not seem to be effective in reducing crime or producing offenders capable and able to re-enter society as productive members. Alabama reports a 31.5% recidivism rate.⁸ The recidivism statistic does not take into consideration people on probation that reoffend. Moreover, it does not consider people with lesser misdemeanor charges that reoffend. It only considers people entered into the ADOC that within 3 years of release either on parole, alternative sentencing, or end of sentence, and reoffend.

What causes recidivism? Why is the statistic so high? Reentry is difficult. Byran Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative, indicates one problem, My state of Alabama, like a number of states, actually permanently disenfranchises you if you have a criminal conviction.⁹ The system not only disenfranchise people, it finds a way to keep people indebted to the system and trapped in it. There are a number of problems in the justice system that help people become repeat offenders. These problems create a number of challenges for the transitioning prisoner.

First, this newly freed individual must find a place to live. This can be quite difficult without considerable savings, or family support. Work Release is hardly a relief in Alabama. The ADOC requires 40% of income earned be paid to the department. Then restitution and child support is withheld, often leaving inmates with nothing. However, if the family is not available or unwilling to help, there are some limited means with halfway houses and homeless shelters.

There are also challenges finding suitable work. First, the educational irregularities of the majority of inmates is a major problem in gaining employment. The ADOC reports a 5th grade average education for male and female inmates within the system.¹⁰ Second, many places will have closed doors and will not want to take the risks involved in hiring someone with a criminal record, including people with certain skills and education. These job related struggles create financial difficulties. There are jobs available, but the opportunities are certainly limited by these factors. These difficulties shape and create issues with recidivism.

Failure of Individual Pastoral Care

Traditional prison ministry in Alabama has not offered much to help address the concerns of transition and recidivism. In most cases, these ministries involve going into a prison system and building a relationship with a group of inmates in order to share the gospel during a chapel service. This individual salvation focused prison ministry comes in many forms and these relationships are built by various means. Unfortunately, the relationships built during prison ministry visits often become short term relationships. Mainstream people who are generally morally correct are often afraid of people who habitually break the law and the established moral rules.¹¹ Inside the prison, everything is controlled. However, once someone leaves prison, people disengage. It is not intentional, but there is a disconnect once a person leaves prison. These ministries are often limited to someone’s confinement. The unfortunate end result of this limited scope of ministry can bring a negative reaction to God, church, and ministry.

Most traditional prison