Breaking the cycle

This morning I heard a story by Steve Inskeep on NPR about the Ohio Reformatory for Women, which is one of only a handful of U.S. prisons that offers an in-house nursery. This option is available only for non-violent offenders serving short sentences who are pregnant when they arrive at the facility or who have infants. The twin goals of the program are to reduce recidivism and prevent the children of these inmates from becoming offenders themselves. I listened to this story with interest, because I have firsthand experience working with female ex-offenders and know all too well how the odds are stacked against their children.

In the spring of 2002 when I was a a student at Beeson Divinity School, I took a class on Social Justice Ethics taught by Dr. Wilton Bunch. One of the passages we focused on during the semester was Luke 4:18-19, in which Jesus declared, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." The phrase "proclaim freedom for the prisoners" jumped out at me as I contemplated the passage in the days to come, and within a few months I discovered that God had used this class to prepare me to be a part of a group of "wild, praying women" who would launch a transitional housing ministry serving female ex-offenders called The Next Door.

During the past few years, I have had the privilege of returning to Beeson each semester to speak to Dr. Bunch's ethics classes about restorative justice. During my presentation, I make the case that Christ-followers have a moral obligation to address this issue, and I share the story of the creation of The Next Door as an example of one congregation's effort to be a part of the solution. I share some statistics to help the students understand the scope of the problem:

- More than one in 100 American adults are in jail or prison - an all-time high.

- The national prison population has tripled since 1987.

- With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the U.S. leads the world in the both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates. China is second with 1.5 million people incarcerated and Russia is third with 890,000. 

- 650,000 people are released from prison each year.

- Half of all released inmates return to jail or prison within three years.

- Parole violators now constitute 34% of all admissions.

- 1.5 million American children have a parent in prison.

Nonviolent drug offenses are the primary reason for the high rates of female incarceration, and the majority of these women have children. This is certainly true among the residents at The Next Door. As I worked with the residents on a weekly basis for three years, I learned that the vast majority of them had experienced some form of abuse in the past - physical, mental, or sexual. Most of the residents had a dual diagnosis - a substance abuse issue and a mental health issue. Many of them had family members who were incarcerated - mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children. Their stories were harrowing and heartbreaking. The good news is that many of these women found hope at The Next Door. The Tennessee Department of Corrections estimates that 60% of women released from prison in Tennessee will end up back behind bars within a year, but the rate of recidivism for women who complete The Next Door's 6-month program is less than 20%.

Back to the NPR story: Is it optimal for an infant to spend the first few months of life behind bars? Of course not. But by allowing the mother and child to bond during that critical period of childhood development and by equipping these young mothers with parenting skills, perhaps two lives will be transformed and two prison beds will be empty in the future.