Witness from Prison: Delight God!

Is this not the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice?  – Isaiah 58: 6

In Isaiah 58 a clear statement is made how God defines penance and fasting. It is not wearing garments of sackcloth and ashes that satisfy God. It is living in justice that delights God. Advent is a good time to focus on that extra step anyone of us can take to help make that change.

My time in prison was a revealing and learning experience. We were 240 prisoners, most of us incarcerated for non-violent law violations. The subject I heard most discussed was family. Many men called home every day, if they could afford it, and they wrote home and looked forward to receiving mail and visits from their families. That is the number one thing that struck me most profoundly in my Oxford experience: the extreme effect incarceration has on the family of the incarcerated. Statistics* say that there are two million children whose fathers are in jail, that 22% of these are under the age of five, and that the percentage of minority children with a parent in jail is about 66%. Families are affected financially and emotionally and very often need counseling and leadership. Children need family love and attention from father as well as mother and the extended family.

Secondly, remembering that this is the richest country in the world and is the so called country of opportunity, I asked myself: Why? why? why do we still discriminate and not give each person respect and dignity? We have 70 to 80% minorities in our prisons and the numbers are rising. Statistics:*  The number of prisoners since 1980 has risen from 500,000 to 2.1 million today. California spends $34,000 each year for each inmate, four times more than is spent for a student in schools and colleges. We are all God's people and still in 2006, we deprive people of equal treatment and necessities of life. We supposedly are tenderhearted souls, God's people living in this created world to love and serve each other.

Practicing works of mercy, we must set free those who are dominated by oppression. Charity must be done in an ongoing pursuit of justice. When we live in justice, we remove ourselves from false accusations and malicious speech. We must be peacemakers and invite others to join in these efforts. This is the way we can delight God.

Reflection: Pray for those who are incarcerated, especially the millions of children who are suffering the deprivation of parental love and care this Christmas season. Is there some tangible way you can be helpful?

* From Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan, former U.S. Congressman for ten years who served on a committee that oversaw federal prisons. Fr. Drinan is now a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.