Leviticus 13:45-46; Mark 1:40-45

The Law stipulated that those with a leprous disease (a description of any skin rash or disorder) had to live in a separate place—isolated from family and friends.  While they were free to roam around, they always had to announce their condition so as not in endanger others. Once again we see Jesus refusing to shun those who have a mark, but instead offers treatment and reintegration into the community. 

Today’s laws stipulate that people with certain criminal records be restricted as to where they can live, who they can be with, and what activities they can participate in.  They must register with the police any time they move so the community can be notified as to their whereabouts.  Beneath the policy is an unwritten belief that these people are beyond redemption or change.

Do you think our isolation laws ensure public safety or do they perpetuate anti-social behavior?  What does Jesus’ action teach us? 

Wrongly convicted.  Released after 25 years.  Exonerated.  Thank God.  

http://news.yahoo.com/man-cleared-nyc-murder-25-years-prison-182841043.html

Mark 10:13-16

Jesus took children in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them.  However, before he could, he had to chastise his disciples for trying to prevent it.  Why do you think the disciples tried to limit the children’s access to Jesus?  What might their underlying attitude be toward children?  How do you think the children (and parents) would have felt if Jesus rejected them?

Today, we have seen a growing number of adults “laying their hands” on children—not to bless them but to punish them.  Due to zero tolerance policies, children are being suspended and expelled from school at growing rates.  Expulsion is even becoming common in preschools.  What message do you think expulsion gives to young children? 

Many groups have begun to call suspension and expulsion the first step in the “school to prison pipeline.”  Children who are expelled are much more likely to repeat the behavior and end up incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities and later in adult prisons as they grow up understanding themselves as “bad”.  What, if anything, might Jesus have to say to us about our treatment of children.  Link HERE to learn more about the “school to prison pipeline” and pray that teachers and administrators will move to divert children away from the pipeline.

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?