Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any "purpose" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for\" \/>\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\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any "purpose" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-09T18:33:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-14T03:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/\",\"name\":\"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-09T18:33:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-14T03:07:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any \\\"purpose\\\" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)","description":"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any \"purpose\" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)","og_description":"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any \"purpose\" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2014-12-09T18:33:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-14T03:07:20+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/","name":"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-09T18:33:13+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-14T03:07:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"SMcK: I'm not sure we have any \"purpose\" other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":53836,"date":"2014-12-09T12:33:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T18:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=53836"},"modified":"2015-03-13T22:07:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:07:20","slug":"crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/12\/09\/crime-and-imprisonment-does-the-system-work-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime and Imprisonment: Does the system work? (No.)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

SMcK: I\u2019m not sure we have any \u201cpurpose\u201d other than retributive justice in too much of our system. Is it a place to punish or is it a place to work for restoration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benjamin L. Corey<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

10.2 million people sit in prison cells today around the world\u2013 and almost\u00a0half of them<\/em><\/a>\u00a0are right here, in the United States. While in the US we like to boast about being \u201c#1\u2033 we forget that we\u2019re actually #1 at a lot of things that we probably shouldn\u2019t be proud of \u2013 and having the highest incarceration rate in the world is one of them.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s not just our incarceration numbers that should be a shock to our system, but the recidivism rate that we should find most concerning. In a study from 2005-2010, researchers found that\u00a03 out of 4 former prisoners are re-arrested within 5 years<\/a>\u00a0after being released from prison.<\/p>\n

Simply put,\u00a0the way we approach crime and punishment\u00a0doesn\u2019t work<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the approach of building more prisons and punishing more harshly (aka, mandatory sentencing, three strikes laws, the war on drugs) hasn\u2019t worked and has only led to more of the same. In fact, some of our harsh approach to crime and punishment has actually led to more crime as nonviolent offenders (such as folks going to jail for marijuana offenses), come out on the other side of prison more \u201chardened\u201d than they were to begin with. Throw into the mix the huge vocational barriers someone with a criminal record faces, and our situation is ripe for failure\u2013 one that actively produces more crime and brokenness, not less\u2026.<\/p>\n

The solution?<\/p>\n

We must become people who long to see a life restored instead of a life destroyed<\/span>, and we must become willing to do whatever it takes to make the former happen, while resisting the easier path of doing the latter. Together, we can begin to influence culture in such a way that we reform our penal system to become something that sees justice as a life restored instead of punishment given.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"