Incarceration or Redemption?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The weekend of Oct 3-5 is a time for congregations all over America to reflect in worship on the issue of mass incarceration:\u00a0 for resources, see Justice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Incarceration or Redemption?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The weekend of Oct 3-5 is a time for congregations all over America to reflect in worship on the issue of mass incarceration:\u00a0 for resources, see Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T21:18:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-24T16:27:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Burklo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Burklo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/\",\"name\":\"Incarceration or Redemption?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-23T21:18:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-24T16:27:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/2b75dde76faa862099b5028e450f5ffc\"},\"description\":\"The weekend of Oct 3-5 is a time for congregations all over America to reflect in worship on the issue of mass incarceration:\u00a0 for resources, see Justice\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Incarceration or Redemption?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Forward\",\"description\":\"Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/2b75dde76faa862099b5028e450f5ffc\",\"name\":\"Jim Burklo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a2441e90eaae1f79f92e84518102f6c?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a2441e90eaae1f79f92e84518102f6c?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jim Burklo\"},\"description\":\"Rev. 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{"id":6976,"date":"2014-09-23T21:18:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T21:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?p=6976"},"modified":"2014-09-24T16:27:40","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T16:27:40","slug":"incarceration-or-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2014\/09\/incarceration-or-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Incarceration or Redemption?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The weekend of Oct 3-5 is a time for congregations all over America to reflect in worship on the issue of mass incarceration:\u00a0 for resources, see Justice Not Jails<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, over 2,000,000 Americans are in jail or in prison.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got 5% of the world\u2019s population, but 25% of its prisoners.\u00a0 More black men are under the control of the criminal justice system in America today than were enslaved before the Civil War began.\u00a0 Our prison-industrial complex has become the latest of a long series of forms of systematic oppression against people of color.\u00a0 Lawyer and activist Michelle Alexander rightly calls it \u201cThe New Jim Crow\u201d<\/span><\/a> in her recent book.<\/p>\n

For decades, politicians got elected by promising to stop crime by catching criminals, casting them into prison, and, in more and more cases as time passed, throwing away the keys.\u00a0 Mandatory minimum sentences, \u201cthree strikes\u201d laws, and trumped-up punishments for relatively minor offenses resulted from this perceived political calculus, continually ratcheting-up the harshness of our criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

But today, the math makes no sense.\u00a0 Not for justice, not for public safety, and not even for politics.\u00a0 A confluence of events is leading America to look for those long-lost jailhouse keys.\u00a0 The moment couldn\u2019t have come soon enough.\u00a0 It\u2019s the good news that followed from the bad: federal, state, and local governments ran out of money.\u00a0\u00a0 We can\u2019t afford mass incarceration anymore.<\/p>\n

Republican Tea Partiers finally have awakened to the obvious:\u00a0 big jails are manifestations of the big government they so despise.\u00a0 Why spend tax money on \u201cthree hots and a cot\u201d for a prisoner jailed for a victimless crime?\u00a0 Liberals have been afraid to press for an end to mass incarceration for fear of looking \u201csoft on crime\u201d, but now that conservatives are changing their attitudes due to fiscal factors, the conversation seems politically safer.\u00a0 Too bad it was money and not basic human decency that drove us to this moment of opportunity for reform, but let us rejoice that the time for change has come.\u00a0 States controlled by Republicans are beginning to reduce their prison and jail populations by diverting criminals into rehabilitation or other community-based programs.\u00a0 California\u2019s big \u201crealignment\u201d from state prisons to local jails is resulting in an overall lowering of the rate of incarceration.<\/p>\n

A opportunity for further major reform approaches in California: Proposition 47<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 It reclassifies some petty crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and re-sentences law-breakers accordingly, keeping people in their communities and out of state prison.\u00a0 It also reclassifies past petty offenders, enabling them remove felonies from their records.\u00a0 This will eliminate barriers to jobs, housing, student loans, and public assistance they need in order to redeem themselves in society.\u00a0 If the voters support Proposition 47 this November, California will lead the way for other states to make similar moves from incarceration to restoration.<\/p>\n

We ask God to forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u00a0 One of our trespasses has been the unprecedented mass incarceration of mostly black and brown people for insufficient causes.\u00a0 For this social sin, we Americans must humbly repent and make restitution by offering them the chance to return to society and do the same.<\/p>\n

(For more on the faith-based response to mass incarceration, check out Justice Not Jails<\/span><\/a> and Progressive Christians Uniting.<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

JIM BURKLO
\nWebsite: JIMBURKLO.COM<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Weblog: MUSINGS<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
\nSee a video interview<\/span><\/a> about my new novel, SOULJOURN<\/span><\/a>
\nSee the GUIDE<\/span><\/a> to my articles and books<\/span><\/a>
\n Associate Dean of Religious Life<\/span><\/b><\/a>, University of Southern California<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"