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Everywhere the Same A
service celebrated at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand
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Our penal system does not provide sufficient security. The United States is a violent country, and even though we lock up a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country, there is still a high level of violence in our society. Nor do prisons provide sufficient punishment—to be sure, some states, like Arizona, pride themselves on how brutal their prison system is. But there is enough corruption that some of the more powerful criminals are barely inconvenienced by their prison time, and others have home lives that were as bad or worse. And therefore, prison is certainly not a deterrent. In fact, many studies show that the *concept* of deterrence is a myth. Hungry people, addicted people, desperate people are not particularly good at determining cost-benefit ratios. Deterrence only works for rational, non-stressed persons. Finally, the concept of rehabilitation has become a joke. Funding for education and job training programs have been cut over and over, and we have the highest recidivism rate in the world. Our system does not rehabilitate inmates, it hardens them and dehumanizes them until many cannot perform in society other than criminals. So, the system is broken, but at least we pay through the nose for it. In Michigan alone, we pay 4.7 million dollars per day to keep our state prison system functioning. That cost has been growing at 9% annually since 1980—that’s three times the rate of inflation in the rest of the economy—and it accounts for 20% of our state General Fund. The Michigan Department of Corrections proposed budget for 2008 was over 2 billion dollars. And for all that, we get a system that does not help our society in the ways we want it to. This is the time many liberals might point out that spending 2.1 billion dollars on education reform and job training might prevent a lot of crime, rather than punishing folks after the fact. They might quote Churchill, or Dostoevsky, or Mandela, about how a civilization should be judged by how it treats its prisoners. They would probably note that punishment without rehabilitation is failure by design, that we are merely perpetuating a broken system. I think a lot of that is true. I know that our current system is not only hard on the convicts, but also on their families, as the folks at home struggle through visiting day, like in our story for all ages, as mothers like Anna Akhmatova have their spirits crushed while they wait outside the prison walls. Families of inmates are stigmatized and marginalized, and they are taken advantage of. My sister goes bowling every week with a woman whose son is in prison. Approximately monthly, the woman gets a call from the wife of a prison guard, who asks how she is, and talks about how good a mother she was, that it wasn’t her fault that her son wound up in prison. The caller notes how much she loves her son, and how grateful she must be that there are people there to look out for him, in such a dangerous place. Then they talk about how hard their lives are, and how they need another $300 for medical bills, or to pay tuition to their child’s school. The message is clear: “pay up, or the next time you visit your son, you’ll know exactly why he has so many bruises.” It is not that all guards and prison workers are corrupt. Most of them try to do the right thing. Most are doing the best they can, in a bad situation. After all, they, too are confined in dangerous and deadly places. Like the guards in our second reading, who rarely patrol-led the dangerous inner perimeter, most correctional officers fear for their safety, and many develop health problems and have failed marriages and abuse alcohol or other drugs. Our broken system takes a huge toll on our society. How did we get into this predicament? Part of the answer is pandering politicians, who use scare tactics in their campaigns and promise to “get tough on crime.” Legislators pass tougher laws and longer sentences, and make it harder to get out on parole, and make it more difficult to work in any desirable job if a convict does get out—all of which make great sound bites for the six o’clock news, and virtually all of which only make the problems worse. Another aspect of the problem is the pressure on prosecutors to close cases. In a candid moments, prosecutors have been known to admit that they are promoted for prosecuting cases, not ensuring that justice is served. Determining the actual guilt of the accused person is less important than getting a conviction. Just this week, we’ve heard about Tim Masters, who was pursued by police for 12 years until they finally charged him with murder. Masters’ father cooperated with the police, and urged his son to trust them as well. However, he was convicted on mostly circumstantial evidence and spent a decade in prison before being recently exonerated by DNA evidence. And here in Michigan, a man named Jerry was once told to drive his father and his uncle to the store. 15-year-old Jerry stayed in the car, as his relatives robbed and killed the owner. Jerry was tried as an adult, and spent 23 years in prison, before his self-taught legal knowledge helped him gain his freedom. I guess Jerry’s story is in some ways a “success” story—he had access in prison to books, and did navigate the dangers of prison life. But he lost half of his life in the process. Wouldn’t it be better if our system focused on actual justice, as opposed to conviction rates? So: What can we do about all this? We can demand creative and different solutions from politicians, instead of more tough rhetoric. Quoting Robert Brown, Jr., who was Director of the Michigan Dept. of Corrections from 1984 until 1992, “We need to reserve prison space for criminals we’re afraid of and use more conducive and less costly alternatives to rehabilitate offenders we are simply mad at.” We can support Michigan House Bill 4548, which will revise the current parole standards for nonviolent prisoners. The rate of parole has dropped significantly over the last few decades, as political cronies were given positions on parole boards, replacing criminal justice professionals. Even inmates who are model prisoners, who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, who have served all, or the majority of their sentence, and who have completed job-training or courses on better coping skills have routinely been denied parole. So justice is not served, and the prisons continue to get more crowded. House Bill 4548 may help with some of that. And we can help to truly rehabilitate prisoners. Our Universalist theology insists that all people are worthy of redemption. Some programs of Buddhist meditation have been shown to help, to reduce the violence in prisoners’ lives, and to lower their rate of recidivism. Creative writing workshops, like the one that produced our second reading, can help prisoners learn to cope with their situation. We can help support and fund halfway houses and job training for the recently-released. Just as importantly, we can provide the inmates with a sense of hope and connection, by writing them. In the order of worship this morning, are the addresses of Gary Singer and Maggie Zimmerman, two prisoners from our congregation, and the address of the UU “Church of the Larger Fellowship” Pen Pal program. The Church of the Larger Fellowship, or CLF, provides access to UU resources for people who are far away from a local UU church. Our congregation was started when Mary Anne and Jan found each other through a CLF mailing list. And there are many people behind bars who receive CLF publications on a regular basis. If you want to write to a prisoner with some UU sensitivities, the CLF Pen Pal program will get you connected. Speaking of “get-tough” rhetoric with unintended and counter-productive results, allow me to speak about the Patriot Act for a moment. As with prisons, it is much easier to talk about building fences and creating identification check points than it is to create a truly just, and peaceful, and therefore stable and safe, society. And that is impacting our UU General Assembly. The annual meeting of our association of congregations is scheduled to occur in Fort Lauderdale this year. Alas, the Convention Center there is part of the Port, which is administered by the Homeland Security Department, so entry into the Convention Center requires identification. The Convention Center promised that this stricture would be removed, by the time our General Assembly occurred, but that was not their promise to make. Some folks, who are sick and tired of the erosion of our liberties, want to make a stand on this issue. Several workshops at the GA will address these issues, but some people consider that insufficient. Some folks want to boycott the GA, to express their displeasure. I think that only harms ourselves and our closest friends, so I am urging us to come up with more creative protests. The most troubling issue for many, is the requirement to show ID to get into a free worship service. I hope we can set up telecasts to one or both of the local UU congregations, or even better, broadcast to a big screen on the streets, just outside the security perimeter, so we get some press coverage. It is not the same as gathering for worship, all in the same hall, but neither is boycotting and staying home. If you have further questions, please talk to me later. I am still planning on going to GA. I will serve as a chaplain and witness at the Security Checkpoints, to hopefully minimize the chances that race or youth or disability will prevent people from accessing our meetings. Finally, we need less tough rhetoric and more compassionate power when we talk to ourselves. Many of us spend some or most of our time incarcerated in invisible prisons of our own. Whether it is addiction or feelings of shame, guilt…anxiety…phobias or depression, or whether we must cope with society’s oppressions, like heterosexism, racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism and the rest, tough rhetoric is probably less likely to help than education, understanding and support from friends or professionals. Yes, discipline and boundaries are important. And scolding and constantly criticizing one’s self is not the most productive way to improve such situations. Try meditation (we offer it on Sundays and Wednesdays now!) or do something creative; get educated about your circumstance, and get clear about what is really your stuff to deal with and what is society’s problems or projections. Most importantly, don’t try to “tough it out” alone. Everybody needs some help, sometimes. Hard-line rhetoric just tends to make things worse, in my experience. Talk to somebody, and take a step outside your metaphorical prison. So may we be. |
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