"Everybody agrees that today prisons only increase hate and frustrations."
Who wrote this? NDP justice critic Jack Harris? No. A left-leaning newspaper columnist? No. A dreadlocked Occupy protester? No.
This is Canadian humanitarian Jean Vanier writing in 1974. He had just attended a conference on prisons in Canada, and left feeling discouraged by talk of new jails.
"Prisons are not therapeutic," wrote Vanier to his friends. "They are overpopulated, there is not enough work, there is much fear and a real danger of outbursts on the part of the guards."
Vanier, whose life work is informed by his Catholic faith, has emphasized the need for a corrections system that rehabilitates and heals. His letters reveal a frustration with societal attitudes toward prisoners. "If I had been born in other circumstances," he wrote in one letter, "perhaps I might be behind bars today, full of frustration and anger."
Almost 40 years later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a professed Christian, is hell-bent on ramming through an omnibus crime bill that would jail more Canadians for longer periods of time for more reasons. Bill C-10 would, among other things, impose adult sentences on violent young offenders. Harsher punishment will make Canada safer, the Conservatives say.
But it will likely do the opposite, and at great financial cost. The bill includes no serious efforts toward rehabilitation and has been universally panned as terrible policy by experts in the corrections field. Nevertheless, the government refuses to budge. Its position was best explained by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: "We're not governing on the basis of the latest statistics.
We're governing on the basis of what's right to better protect victims and lawabiding Canadians."
This simplistic policy is intended to please Harper's base, including many Canadian churchgoers.
But Harper faces a problem. His justice policy is in stark contradiction to the message of Jesus, and many Christian groups and individuals are publicly saying so.
The Church Council on Justice and Corrections, an ecumenical body that includes Baptist, Christian Reformed and Catholic churches (among others), fears the bill is "a giant step in the wrong direction."
Late last year, the group sent Harper a letter outlining its concerns: "The Canadian government has regretfully embraced a belief in punishment-forcrime that first requires us to isolate and separate the offender from the rest of us, in our minds as well as in our prisons. That separation makes what happens later easier to ignore: by increasing the number of people in jail for lengthier sentences, you are decreasing their chance of success upon release into the community."
Steve Bell, a Winnipeg singer-songwriter who is also an evangelical Christian, also made a public stand on the issue last month, warning Harper in an open letter that Bill C-10 includes "alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtedly be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is."
Bell, whose father was a chaplain at the Drumheller penitentiary, calls for a more nuanced approach to justice. "Who is being served by harsh punitive measures for crimes that are rooted in addictions and poverty, when prevention and restorative measures are proven to be far more effective?" he asks.
Other faith groups are similarly speaking out, and rightly so. Jesus, who was himself a prisoner, instructed his followers to befriend those in jail. Being with prisoners, he said, is an encounter with the divine: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
This in no way squares with Harper's policy of alienation, which demonizes criminals as people beyond hope, unworthy of grace, unworthy even of rehabilitation.
Harper's crime policy is a cynical political ploy that will make our country poorer in more ways than one. Rejecting statistics, expertise and reason has nothing to do with "what's right." It's wilful ignorance. And there's nothing moral about that.
Origin
Source: Calgary Herald
Who wrote this? NDP justice critic Jack Harris? No. A left-leaning newspaper columnist? No. A dreadlocked Occupy protester? No.
This is Canadian humanitarian Jean Vanier writing in 1974. He had just attended a conference on prisons in Canada, and left feeling discouraged by talk of new jails.
"Prisons are not therapeutic," wrote Vanier to his friends. "They are overpopulated, there is not enough work, there is much fear and a real danger of outbursts on the part of the guards."
Vanier, whose life work is informed by his Catholic faith, has emphasized the need for a corrections system that rehabilitates and heals. His letters reveal a frustration with societal attitudes toward prisoners. "If I had been born in other circumstances," he wrote in one letter, "perhaps I might be behind bars today, full of frustration and anger."
Almost 40 years later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a professed Christian, is hell-bent on ramming through an omnibus crime bill that would jail more Canadians for longer periods of time for more reasons. Bill C-10 would, among other things, impose adult sentences on violent young offenders. Harsher punishment will make Canada safer, the Conservatives say.
But it will likely do the opposite, and at great financial cost. The bill includes no serious efforts toward rehabilitation and has been universally panned as terrible policy by experts in the corrections field. Nevertheless, the government refuses to budge. Its position was best explained by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: "We're not governing on the basis of the latest statistics.
We're governing on the basis of what's right to better protect victims and lawabiding Canadians."
This simplistic policy is intended to please Harper's base, including many Canadian churchgoers.
But Harper faces a problem. His justice policy is in stark contradiction to the message of Jesus, and many Christian groups and individuals are publicly saying so.
The Church Council on Justice and Corrections, an ecumenical body that includes Baptist, Christian Reformed and Catholic churches (among others), fears the bill is "a giant step in the wrong direction."
Late last year, the group sent Harper a letter outlining its concerns: "The Canadian government has regretfully embraced a belief in punishment-forcrime that first requires us to isolate and separate the offender from the rest of us, in our minds as well as in our prisons. That separation makes what happens later easier to ignore: by increasing the number of people in jail for lengthier sentences, you are decreasing their chance of success upon release into the community."
Steve Bell, a Winnipeg singer-songwriter who is also an evangelical Christian, also made a public stand on the issue last month, warning Harper in an open letter that Bill C-10 includes "alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtedly be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is."
Bell, whose father was a chaplain at the Drumheller penitentiary, calls for a more nuanced approach to justice. "Who is being served by harsh punitive measures for crimes that are rooted in addictions and poverty, when prevention and restorative measures are proven to be far more effective?" he asks.
Other faith groups are similarly speaking out, and rightly so. Jesus, who was himself a prisoner, instructed his followers to befriend those in jail. Being with prisoners, he said, is an encounter with the divine: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
This in no way squares with Harper's policy of alienation, which demonizes criminals as people beyond hope, unworthy of grace, unworthy even of rehabilitation.
Harper's crime policy is a cynical political ploy that will make our country poorer in more ways than one. Rejecting statistics, expertise and reason has nothing to do with "what's right." It's wilful ignorance. And there's nothing moral about that.
Origin
Source: Calgary Herald
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