J. R. Woodgates
Tag Archives: James Russell Woodgates
The voices of the more than 12 million people who annually pass through one (or more) of the nation’s 3,000 jails seem absent from this process. So too are the voices of their loved ones and most dedicated advocates.
Is it really good news that Koch Industries and the MacArthur Foundation, among other deep-pocket entities, are financing prison reform initiatives? Or are they big-footing grass roots reformers?
Here’s an unofficial survey of inmate intake, ranging from bad to worse:
FYI: Here’s the menu sheet from my last week at FCI Butner Low.
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