 Panel to ask commissioners to abolish for-profit prisons By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Commissioners to the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be asked to approve a resolution calling for the abolition of for-profit private prisons in the United States because prisoners are among the "oppressed and marginalized in our society." The Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns will propose that resolution in a to the Committee on National Issues, which will meet during the General Assembly on May 24-31 in Denver. Using a socialist rationale and selective data, and with little mention of the victims of criminals, the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns offers a vague "restorative justice" approach to dealing with criminals while criticizing for-profit private prisons as a product of a capitalist society. In addition, the rationale for the resolution infers, but offers no proof, that for-profit private prisons buy influence with state and federal lawmakers to award contracts, deliberately cut costs to boost profits, have no accountability under state and federal law and "separate families by moving incarcerated individuals to [prisons in] other states." The report does not acknowledge that many government-run prisons are rife with political questions. Instead, the advisory committee's three and one-half page report on private, for-profit prisons, along with a 22-page rationale, deplores the idea that businesses would profit off of incarceration and says that factor constitutes a "fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation as the ultimate goal of the prison system." The report has an anti-prison bias, saying: "Presbyterian policy has opposed prisons in general as the primary means of addressing criminal behavior since 1972. Not only have we been collectively guilty in not addressing these problems, but also trends of social injustice and punishment over rehabilitation have significantly worsened in the last thirty years." The prison report will be reviewed by the General Assembly Committee on National Affairs. The Advisory Committee's study suggests that only the state can rehabilitate prisoners, but the data show that the recidivism rate for government-run prisons is as high as 80-percent. The advisory committee's study does not include faith-based programs such as Prison Fellowship's InterChange program, which is a prison within a prison. The Charles Colson-developed ministry contracts with corrections officials to run prison units for volunteers who choose to enroll for Bible studies, discipline-training and educational classes. Studies show the recidivism rates in InterChange prison units are only one-third of prisoners in the general population. Lawsuits against the evangelical ministry have been filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Ignoring the fact that people are in prison because they have been convicted of crimes, the resolution draws a sketchy distinction between incarcerating violent and non-violent offenders and offers a rosy vision of the future, citing "advances in working with such prisoners through spiritual, medical, rehabilitative, psychological, and educational techniques may some day make it possible for every prisoner to be successfully rehabilitated and restored to their community and family." Claiming that for-profit private prisons are "morally unacceptable," the resolution states that "private prisons are not an economic but a deep religious and ethical issue." The resolution claims that the prison system "is at least partly responsible for the social, political, economic, moral, and spiritual conditions that make some of our members weak, threatened, helpless, sick, and tempted to antisocial behavior." The prisoners, those "most vulnerable members of society" according to the rationale, are exploited by the prisons, which "isolate and make invisible the people they lock up." In addition to calling for the abolition of for-profit private prisons, the resolution also seeks the following: A. Approve the report as a whole for churchwide study and implementation. B. Direct the Office of the General Assembly to publish the entire report with a related study/action guide and place the document as a whole on the PC(USA)'s Web site, making available a copy for each requesting session or middle governing body; and, direct the Stated Clerk to notify the entire church it is available. C. Direct the Stated Clerk to encourage individual members, sessions and middle governing bodies to give prayerful attention to the report as a help in study and advocating for the abolition of for-profit private prisons in the communities where they live and work and nationally. D. Direct the Washington Office, in partnership with the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns and the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns to:
G. Call upon middle governing bodies and sessions that have endowments, as well as seminaries, church-related colleges and universities, to consider participation in the campaign to abolish for-profit private prisons, including the Lehman Campaign. H. Encourage all Presbyterians, while working to abolish permanently all for-profit private prisons, also to work to protect the health, welfare, and well-being of the prisoners that are held in these facilities, in ways that do not recognize the legitimacy of these institutions or contribute to their continuation. I. Urge the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns and the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns to work to ensure that for-profit private prisons are held absolutely accountable to all existing laws and to stringent provisions relating to prisons and the protection of prisoners and that, in the case of failure to show this accountability, contracts with them be terminated. J. Urge local justice communities to work in collaboration with other justice-minded entities, including local interfaith bodies. K. Urge all publications and other communications vehicles of the Presbyterian Church (USA.) to develop articles, reports and other educational materials designed to educate, motivate and activate Presbyterians to participate in the campaign to abolish for-profit private prisons and in particular in the Lehman Campaign. L. Encourage the General Assembly Council, through its National Ministries Division/Social Justice program area, to focus Criminal Justice Sunday in 2004 on the campaign to abolish for-profit private prisons. M. Urge Presbyterian Women to make the campaign to abolish for-profit private prisons a focus of their ongoing work. N. Urge Presbyterians who are ecumenical staff to advocate for making the campaign to abolish for-profit private prisons a critical focus of the Summer 2004 meeting of the National Association of Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Staff. |
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