Mark 5:1-20

Jesus and the disciples are confronted with a man who is not in his right mind.  How has the community dealt with this man?  How does Jesus deal with him?  

In this case, the community has criminalized the man while Jesus addresses his illness and treats him.   In the book, “Prisons of the Mind”, prison abolitionist Amanda Pustlinik observes that prisons are used as a “default asylum” for many individuals with mental illness.  She asks, “”why do governmental units choose to spend billions of dollars a year to concentrate people with serious illnesses in a system designed to punish intentional law-breaking, when doing so matches neither the putative purposes of that system nor most effectively addresses the issues posed by that population?”

Consistent with her assessment, almost 50% of the inmates at Cook County Jail have some kind of mental illness.  Why do you think we have chosen incarceration over treatment for these people?  Why do you think Jesus acts differently from the community?  What do you think Jesus would say about our current treatment of people with mental illness? 

In 2002, the US Supreme Court declared that the execution of the mentally ill or those with cognitive disabilities was unconstitutional.  However, there are still people at risk.  It all depends on how “mental retardation” (the jargon still used in the judicial system) is defined.  Warren Hill was scheduled for execution July 15, 2013, in Georgia.  Despite having an IQ of 70, Mr. Hill’s lawyers were unable to meet Georgia’s high threshold to prove his cognitive disability “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  He was not executed as planned after his lawyers challenged it on other grounds and he was given a reprieve.   As of February 17, 2014, his case was still being reviewed by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Acts 16:16-33

As you read the story of Paul and Silas being punished and jailed for helping an exploited servant girl, what do you think makes them capable of singing in the midst of their incarceration?  Also, what do you think makes them capable of serving the jailor—the representative of an unjust judicial system? 

How do you view prison personnel?  They need our prayers too.  Today, pray for prison guards that they will not become hardened to those around them or use their position of power to abuse prisoners.  And remember that guards are often imprisoned people that God wants to release as well.

Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 22:22-23

A full 70% of the people held in Cook County (IL) jail are there simply because they cannot afford to post bond.  They are not dangerous.  They are charged with a violent crime.  They are held—sometimes for months while they await their hearing or trial—because they are poor.  According to Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board, we have turned Cook County jail into the new debtor’s prison.  In addition, many inmates have some form of mental illness or are addicted to drugs or alcohol. The bottom line: Our jails are filled with the poor and needy. 

What opinion do you think God might have about locking up the poor and needy?  What alternative might God want us to pursue? 

Crime statistics and poverty statistics overlap.  The poor are more likely to be victims of crime and they are more likely to engage in criminal behavior—often because they have not other means of surviving.  Many people have attributed this to some flaw in the personal character of people in poverty.  What do you think?

There is no devotional for Sunday, April 6, 2014.  Devotionals will resume on Monday, April 7

Matthew 18:1-10

The children of the incarcerated are often collateral damage in our correctional system.  Currently 2.7 million children have a parent in prison.  Prisons isolate parents from their families.  Prisons are often located in isolated rural areas making family visitation practically impossible.  When mothers are incarcerated, children are usually placed in foster homes or group homes.  Children of incarcerated parents often experience shame from having a parent in prison and seldom get the emotional and spiritual support they need. Unfortunately, 70 percent of children with parents in prison will themselves be incarcerated at some point in their lives. 

Given the value that Jesus placed on children, what might Jesus say about this statistic?  Would you call our current correctional system a “stumbling block” for children?  If so, how?  What could you and your community do to “cut it off”? 

Prison Fellowship International has a program called Angel Tree that connects incarcerated parents with their children through gift giving.  Sesame Street has a “tool kit” to help children and their caregivers face issues of incarceration together.  For information about Angel Tree, link HERE. 

2 Chronicles 6:26-40

The Scripture today is part of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple.  He prays for God to forgive the people when they sin and then repent.  Repentance is a necessary part of changing one’s life both spiritually and socially.

One of the first “modern” prisons was Eastern State Penitentiary, built outside of Philadelphia, PA, in 1829.  It was built on principals championed by the Society of Friends (Quakers) and was a radical departure from the torture and executions that had been used for punishment in Europe and other parts of the US.  Under the new model, corporal punishment of inmates was prohibited.   The building, modeled after a monastery with small sky-lit cells for individual inmates, was intended to be a place where inmates would have ample time to reflect on their “crime” and come to regret their action.  Like a monastery, inmates were expected to maintain silence at all times and there was no interaction with other inmates.  Inmates spent their time alone reading the Bible and working with their hands (making shoes, weaving, etc)—all with the goal that inmates become penitent.  Hence, penitentiary. 

The model was not without controversy.  Charles Dickens expressed concern of the effects of silence and solitary confinement on the brain.  Alexis de Tocqueville reported to the French government that this model was a powerful tool for total reformation of the criminal.  The critics eventually prevailed and the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement and silence was abandoned by 1913. 

While the word ‘penitentiary’ continues in our vocabulary, would you say our current system is designed to punish criminals or move them toward rehabilitation? If our prisons do not rehabilitate (and our recidivism rate would suggest that they do not), what other model might work better?  What could a Christian model of rehabilitation possibly look like? 

Rehabilitation is at the core of the Danish prison system and the evidence suggests that it works.  Learn more about the Danish system HERE.    Do you think such a system would work in the US?  Why or why not? 

Acts 12:1-17

In this passage, God breaks Peter out of the jail of Herod Agrippa I, ensuring that Peter will not be killed as James, the brother of John, had been killed.  Peter ends up being a fugitive from Herod’s justice. Why do you think this story of a prison break was included in the history of the early church?  Is it just a story about Peter’s miraculous release from prison?  What else does it teach us about God?  About injustice?  About prayer for the prisoner? 

We need a plumber desperately.  There is a direct relationship between early school suspension and later incarceration.  Break the chains!

The School-to-Prison Pipeline Starts in Preschool

Daniel 6:1-23

King Darius issued an executive order that prohibited prayer.  Daniel, in what amounts to civil disobedience, continued to pray three times a day and is caught.  He ended up being sentenced to capitol punishment — death by lions.  God intervened and Daniel was saved from execution. 

Why do you think King Darius issued the order to begin with?  Why do you think Daniel chose to break the law of the land, knowing it could mean execution? What does God’s intervention reveal about God in relationship to Darius’ “law and order” edict? 

We often say, “Do the crime; do the time”.  This attitude reveals an underlying assumption that all laws are just.  Historically, what are some examples of “unjust laws”?  How do you determine whether a law is “just” or “unjust”?  Have you ever acted in “civil disobedience” because of the law clashed with your faith?  If not, why not? 

In April 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed in Birmingham for violating an injunction to refrain from organizing or promoting protests against segregation.  Many pastors criticized him for breaking the law and using “extreme” tactics in his fight for equality.  In response, he wrote his famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”.  You can read it HERE.

2 Chronicles 16:1-10 (NIV),  Jeremiah 38:1-6 (NRSV)

In each of today’s Scriptures, prophets are placed in prison—Hanani for confronting King Asa about a questionable treaty with the King of Aram, and Jeremiah for being unpatriotic.  Hanani was placed in stocks and Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern (and left to starve to death).  Prisons are usually part of a larger apparatus of social control and oppression.

What are some current examples of the use of prisons to control political dissent or to oppress groups of people? 

“Nowhere in Scripture do we find a divine endorsement of prisons [as a place of punishment].”  So wrote Mark Olson in an article published in “The Other Side” magazine.  He went on to write, “Never, ever, in any part of the Bible are prisons part of God’s way. Always they are used to oppress. Always they are an affront to the divine. There are no good prisons. None” 

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?  Explain.  How has this year’s Compact challenged your view of prisons and how we treat prisoners?