J. R. Woodgates
Tag Archives: incarceration
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?
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.
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)
Kudos to Kairos Prison Ministry International for going after the hard cases, the worst offenders, the guys no one expects to see restored by God.
Royalties from all retail sales enable me to give away copies of the Recommended Reading titles to prison chaplains, upon request. They also enable me to provide free paperback copies of Daily Light on the Prisoner’s Path to prison ministries for distribution to inmates.
Click HERE and HERE to see who is distributing free copies of DLPP.
For more information, write to:
Prisoner’s Path Books
Post Office Box 32014
Washington, DC 20007
I can be contacted at PrisonersPathBooks@gmail.com.
It’s not just “the war on drugs” that has expanded America’s prison population. CBN News reports that a steady increase in new categories, classes and kinds of actionable offenses is also responsible.
“Overcriminalization” is making felons of Americans like never before.
There are more African-American men in prison and in jail or on parole and probation today than were enslaved in 1850 – a decade before the start of the Civil War.
In her book, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander argues that minority (especially black) men are being deliberately targeted for disenfranchisement via America’s criminal justice system.
This conversation further explores the inequities of prison sentencing and whether the disproportionate percentage of racial minorities composing the prison population reflects a deliberate effort to disenfranchise such men. (Segment begins at 26:40)
Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black, joins former Prison Fellowship VP Pat Nolan, Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Al Franken of Minnesota, a Koch Industries spokesman and others, for a refreshingly bi-partisan panel on the current state of prison reform in America.