J. R. Woodgates
Gardeners work long days, scorched by the sun and tormented by flies. Their work is slowed by the rhythms of prison life: When other inmates move through the yard…gardeners must lock up the shovels so someone with escape on his mind can’t get near them.
Not only do inmate gardens yield good fruit (and vegetables) but they also dramatically lower recidivism rates:
In recent years, federal sentencing guidelines have been revised, resulting in less severe prison terms for low-level drug offenders. But…tens of thousands of inmates who were convicted in the “war on drugs” of the 1980s and 1990s are still behind bars.
The average annual cost of housing a federal inmate in general population is $27,500. The price tag for an older inmate who needs medical care – including expensive drugs and treatment – is $59,000.
THE PAINFUL PRICE OF AGING IN PRISON
Why are we keeping someone behind bars who is bedridden and needs assistance getting out of bed and feeding and clothing himself?
As a parent, you have unique authority from God to influence the spiritual atmosphere around your child. Whether he’s living behind bars, under your roof or out on his own, your child will be affected by these intercessory prayers – all based on Scripture promises.
Taken from the Christian newspaper, Herald of His Coming, which your incarcerated loved one can receive by mail for free.
I saw grown men tear up and cry because they hadn’t touched a dog in 35 years, 15 years, 10 years, and never thought they’d have the chance to do that again. It’s made my institution safer.
Some of the maximum security inmates at South Carolina’s Lee Correctional Institution are experiencing the healing influences of “man’s best friend”:
Not only priests minister behind bars. Catholic laity and religious can also have a huge influence on the spiritual lives of locked up men.
Since Stanford University Psychology Professor Phillip Zimbardo conducted his controversial 1971 prison experiment showing how easy it is for young men to be negatively manipulated, he has continued charting a steady decline in the academic, professional and social skills of young American Men (outlined in his 2011 TED Talk, The Demise of Guys).
Our focus is on young men who play video games to excess, and do it in social isolation – they are alone in their room.
Now, after studying 20,000 subjects, Zimbardo is warning that, because of their even greater preoccupation with video games and pornography, today’s young men are in a “masculinity crisis.”
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:2, The Message)
Energy and ambition go a long way in making money, acquiring academic degrees, climbing Mt. Everest, and hitting home runs. This is indisputable. But such goals, all of them much lauded by our culture, have very little to do in themselves with growing up in the land of resurrection—with living a mature life.
Competitive ambition can be pursued without conscience, without love, without compassion, without humility, without generosity, without righteousness, without holiness. Which is to say, quite apart from maturity.
Immature millionaires routinely walk out on their families. Immature scholars and scientists who collect Nobel Prizes make do with estranged and godless lives. Immature star athletes regularly embarrass their fans by infantile and adolescent, sometimes criminal, behavior.
These are the men and women who set the standards for getting to the top, making a name for themselves, beating out the competition. These are the men and women who provide the examples of what it means to be standout human beings.
—Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection
In 1984, I was 33 years old. I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning…
The clear reality is that the death penalty is an anathema to any society that purports to call itself civilized. It is an abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society and it will continue to do so until this barbaric penalty is outlawed. Until then, we will live in a land that condones state assisted revenge and that is not justice in any form or fashion.
After unnecessarily languishing for three decades on Louisiana’s Death Row, Glenn Ford has at last been exonerated as an innocent man.
Now, former state prosecutor A.M. Stroud III says Ford deserves to be compensated for what he suffered because of Stroud’s refusal 30 years ago to even consider that Ford might have been innocent of murder.
This is his personal letter to The Shreveport Times:
Prison life may be a recurring theme on TV and in the movies, but prisoners themselves often feel totally ignored and forgotten by the public. The fact is, prisoners are totally ignored and forgotten by most people – including the ones responsible for their well-being.
This is John Oliver at his best, examining the indifference too many top officials have towards the conditions endured by too many incarcerated Americans. (Obscene language advisory)