A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of serving on a Keryx prison ministry weekend held at Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth. Given 10 days to ponder, here are some thoughts.
First, the location. Coming from the boondocks where I live and being used to prisons in rural settings or in not the "best part" of town, it was striking to see this prison, located at the corner of Five Mile Road and Beck Road. Let's just say this one is NOT in the poor side of town. New shopping malls and rather large, expensive houses all around. No wonder the MDOC is closing the prison and as rumor has it, selling the property to a real estate developer (Pulte, perhaps?)who would put more rather large, expensive homes on the property once they bulldoze the prison. But here we have a prison that has been open less than twenty years being closed and torn down. With, most likely, the proceeds from the sale just becoming another item buried in the state budget. Not having the answer, what do we learn from this, most likely a result of the prison building boom of the 80's? How do we control correctional costs in this state, which are indeed staggering? You can say reduce prisoner population, which will happen through sentencing/probation/treatment/parole/commutation/etc. means, but only until some highly visible case happens where someone released "early" commits some horrific crime (like this one) and it becomes political suicide to keep that plan going. Being a Christian, I would maintain the issues are primarily spiritual and hence require spiritual treatment. But that's for another post.
After 12 years and over 2500 hours volunteering in men's prisons, this was my first venture inside a women's prison. The first thing that struck me was the uniforms. Now, I'm used to the uniforms. On men. I remember when the male prisoners wore civilian clothes (and in many cases, more expensive civilian clothes than I could ever afford) until things changed back in the late 90's. It took a while to get used to seeing the men in the uniforms - blue shirts with blue pants, with an orange shoulder stripe. Seeing the women in uniforms was just somehow more "wrong" than the men. I know, this is not politically correct, but that's my personal thought.
The prison itself was, well, a prison. In one way or another all the ones I've been to (six in all), when you get down to it, are pretty much the same. Perhaps some have pole barn architecture, some have brick buildings (as Scott does) or some are dorm/barracks-style. What doesn't change is the atmosphere. They are glum places. Full of people walking around, hands stuffed in pockets, heads either down or focused straight ahead on something straight ahead in the far-off distance. And those aren't just prisoners doing so. Not having been a prisoner or a staff member in a prison, I can't pretend to understand the culture. The staff was actually, on the whole, very accomodating. What we do when we do a weekend is a tremendous disruption to routine and routine is very important there. They were very cheerful and professional, unlike some prisons where certain staff has been openly hostile and disdainful toward us.
Now, confidentiality prevents me from being too open about what happened. Over the course of the weekend, one thing struck me that I've encountered in men's prisons and I think it's a shame. Way too many of the prisoners look at their earliest out date (the first day they can be released) as the guaranteed day they are going home. One woman's earliest out date was coming up in a year or so, as an example. She just "knew" she was going home then and there was no doubt in her mind. Having seen this time and time again, all she is doing is setting herself up for a fall. In addition, there's some bad doctrine that is behind the Christians who have that attitude. They have been taught to "claim" their parole and they always "claim" the first date. Throwing aside the secular reasons for caution in doing this, as a Christian, who are we to in fact, place an obligation upon God to give us what we desire? Could He grant the desires of our heart? Sure. Does He have to, even when our faith is firm? No. These prisoners claim they have received a "word from God" or a "a revelation". Odd how that revelation never says they're going to spend more years in prison after their earliest out date, which in fact, many do. Then when their parole isn't granted, Christians rebuke them for not having enough faith in their prayers, which is "why God didn't give you your parole." So much for "if the Lord wills" as James says.
What mindset causes that kind of deception? Again, I can't pretend to know. What I do know is that Scripture does command us to pray and that God will answer. But is every answer an exact "yes" to our prayer? No. Look at Jesus in the garden. Paul in 2 Cor. 12. The answer was different than the one given to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3. We cannot pretend to know why God answers heartfelt prayers for release from prison with a "no." Why He would want a child (or children) to continue to live without Mom or Grandma around. Somehow, though, in His will, He does and if it's in His will, it's good and it's lovely. Mysterious, yes. Tragic, yes - but only to us. It all makes perfect sense to Him.
One might say, well, you just don't understand. What I can understand is the Word of God. I can also understand my experience as it relates to the Word of God. How heartfelt prayers offered by our family for our son and offered by Christian prisoners at Kinross Correctional Facility for a year and a half for our son were answered in God's providence with our son being killed at age 19 in 2002. My wife prayed for Jon's health and his soul in the middle of the night May 29, 2002. We found out later his estimated time of death was around the time my wife prayed? Coincidental? No, providential. Our fractured relationship with our son was healed before he died. Was our son's death an accident, as people refer to such incidents? No. God had a purpose and plan that He has had eternally for our son's death that day. I talk freely about his death to prisoners and about our encounter with the criminal justice system after his death. I also talk freely about how God providentially was actively involved in our son's death.
There was also an interesting conversation with a prisoner about marriage. Prisoners tend to have a problem with my personal conviction on marriage. I personally believe that a Biblical marriage cannot and should not be initiated while one of the partners is incarcerated. This particular prison was a) one of those who "knows" she's getting out at her earliest out date over the next few years and b) was adamant about marrying a man whom she met while incarcerated. Red flags are flying all over the place at this. One of the frustrations of doing ministry such as what we do on these weekends is that you are in essence doing battlefield counseling. You usually get one chance, over 15-30 minutes, to try and give sound, biblical advice to someone you've never met before and may well never see again. As a result of this, my counsel tends to be a little more confrontational than would otherwise happen - you know this will probably be your only opportunity to have their ear. This particular prisoner had "man problems" in the past. BIG man problems. Now she wants to marry some guy whom she's never seen other than in the visiting room. Works out well for him, in a sense. But in another, not so. All one can do is try to bring Scripture in and get past the emotion and life circumstances that got the prisoner to this point and take a wider view of things and try to help them from making some of the same mistakes that led to them being there in the first place.
Finally, the sadness. Sadness at hearing women introduce themselves and tell us about their families. Most had children. Many had grandchildren. All those children and grandchildren growing up without Mom or Grandma around. Many of those children also growing up without Dad (or Grandpa) around because we men are real good at using women for our own carnal purposes and leaving them to deal with the consequences. Families are foundational to a sound society. Families with a mother AND a father. Men need to step up and take responsibility. Men need to be men and not treat their woman as a piece of property. Countless times I've heard male prisoners discuss the anguish they know they've caused their parents - especially their mother. The pain they feel because they have children "in the world" growing up without a father. The "what can I do from in here's" when they talk about hearing that their son/daughter is starting to do the same stupid things they did to get sent to prison. This time, with the prisoners being female, there just seemed to be something more inherently "wrong" with them being there, away from children. Yes, I know that sounds chauvinistic. One of our female volunteers (I was one of only three male volunteers - we were there as Spiritual Directors) asked me, "What did these women do to get put here?" I said, "The same stupid things men do." Sin transcends gender. Sin abounds on either side of the fence. Sin is something we as Christians need to be examining ourselves for all the time. This isn't a "those prisoners are bad people" thing. Scripture says we are all bad (dead, actually, spiritually) by nature. Society judges certain sins as being worthy of imprisonment. Are we not all, though, conceived under a death sentence (Psalm 51 and others)? Who am I to judge my sin as being less worthy of condemnation than that of a prisoner? Of a child molester? A rapist? A murderer? All we can do is proclaim the message of redemption and reconciliation provided through the cross of Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe life into people who had none before and praise Him that He was merciful in doing so in our lives.
All these women will be moving to Huron Valley over the next several months. We pray for them. And for those who will supervise them. Through it all, we give glory to the living God.
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