J. R. Woodgates
Tag Archives: prisoners
The wounds of PTSD are similar but different from those caused by moral injury. Both bring a sense of dis-ease and an unsettled psyche. But moral injury results from damage to a person’s moral foundation, caused by willfully immoral behavior – say, shooting a child or raping a fellow inmate.
Long after a return to “normal” life, moral injuries can haunt the conscience and undermine one’s sense of being forgiven. Unless moral injury is recognized and ministered to, it can sabotage a man’s peace of mind.
This article is about moral injury among combat vets. As you read it, consider the same phenomenon as it torments men who have done despicable deeds behind bars and are carrying the guilt of it still:
MORAL INJURY AND THE MAN OF WAR
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.
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.