Prisoners

Why should be give a flip about the prisoners? It appears that God cares about them based on several verses in the bible. But, based on my readings, prisons served a different function in biblical times than it they do today in modern developed countries. Today, we use prisons as a way of punishing common criminals. But for most of history, prisons have not been used in that way. In times past, criminals were dealt with more severely than imprisonment, usually through some form of cruelty, torture, execution, and/or public humiliation. We have become more refined in our treatment of criminals. In some ways, more humane (at least is modern democracies).

In biblical times, prisons were used as a means of oppression and abuse, such as to silence political or religious opponents (think Paul or the Count of Monte Cristo). Imprisonment was a means of oppression. The bible seems to have a consistently negative view on imprisonment.

But things are different now, aren’t they? It is hard to deny that, at least for the dangerous few, prisons may be necessary and legitimate to keep the public safe. But does the biblical view of prisoners have any application for today? Is it an accident that those who are marginalized, disadvantaged, or discriminated against in our society are over-represented in the prison system? Do the laws and the justice system bear down more heavily on the poor and disadvantaged than on the rich and the powerful?

In addition, criminality may not be simply a matter of free-will (i.e., the criminal made the choice to break the law). Maybe there are some systems issues at work. To quote an article I recently read:
“ But choices are constrained by environmental circumstances, and it is naïve, if not dishonest, to speak of crime solely in terms of personal free will. Under certain social conditions people will turn to crime who in other social climates would remain law abiding. Poverty, unemployment, racial inequality, social prejudice, family dysfunction and drug and alcohol abuse all have a role in fostering crime. A significant proportion of criminal offenders have been offended against as children before they became offenders.

It is crucial therefore to inquire into the societal causes of, and collective responsibility for, crime rather than being content to divide individuals into categories of guilty and innocent, and tossing the guilty into jail. Society’s own complicity in the creation of criminals is quickly lost sight of in outpourings of moral indignation at individual offenders.”

Prisons and prisoners are different in many ways now than in biblical times. But do some prisoners today still fall into the category of the oppressed? If the Psalm 146 were written today, would they be included? Did Jesus come to set free some of the prisoners today?

Should we build beds for a ministry that works with women recently released from prison?