"I get asked all the time what's the best predictor of success when somebody's coming out of prison," says Ari Zavaras, executive director of Colorado's DOC. "Without question, if somebody had a true spiritual conversion — not the jailhouse kind that gets all the jokes, but the kind where they develop a spiritual base — I'd be almost able to bet a year's pay, without worry, that they're not going to reoffend."
This quote comes from a June 22, 2008 article from denverpost.com on the rehabilitation of inmates.
ED of CO's DOC is willing to bet a year's pay on the fact that true spiritual conversion will keep an ex-offender out of jail. If he sees the effects of such a decision, why are programs like Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative being fought so hard against?
I think the mindset of this country is that prison is a place for punishment first, and punishment only. No amount of mercy should be shown because justice should be served. Its this idea that has resulted in the mess our prison system is today. Recitivism rates are higher than ever, prisons are packed, and states are spending far more of their budget on correctional issues than on other issues, like education.
Read this article. It will give you a personal story (or three) to put to the ever looming and abstract idea of "prisoner." It will help you understand that, if things are going to change, justice needs to include rehabilitation and restoration. No longer can justice simply equal punishment.
"Incarceration," a converted ex-offender says, "is no more than a captive audience for enlightenment and awakening." As followers, we need to hear the Master calling out, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."
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Lesson for Today: More a memorial than a lesson: 51 year old Donna Fitztgerald, a corrections officer at Tomoka Correctional Institution in Florida, was raped and murdered by 39 year old inmate Enoch Hall yesterday. Serving two life sentences already, Enoch Hall is imprisoned for charges of sexual battery with a weapon and kidnapping. "The entire department grieves the murder of one of our finest officers and we pray for the victim's family during this difficult time," said DOC Secretary Walter McNeil.
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