This letter was published in the Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, on October 2, 2006.
A Letter from Archbishop Harry Flynn:
There was recently a true story told of a man we will call Byron. Byron is a Minnesota inmate who, while imprisoned, vowed that his life would be different when he got out. He swore he would never return to prison and would find a job and work hard. When he got out he immediately began looking for a job. He was eager to work and set his life on a new path.
But he soon learned a harsh reality: that it was nearly impossible for a 6’5 black man covered with tattoos and holding a felony record to get gainful employment. Byron’s frustration only grew as his girlfriend kept pressuring him to find a job. In deep frustration and hopelessness, he committed another crime and landed back in prison.
He knows that when he gets out this time it will be even harder to find work with two felonies on his record. He doesn’t want to return to prison and he, this large, tough man, is scared. He knows he needs help when he returns to society; he needs a decent job, he needs community support and he needs people to believe in him if he is going to stay out of prison.
Sadly, Byron is not unique. There are thousands of people just like him in Minnesota’s correctional facilities; all of them need support when they return back to our communities.
In recent years, many people, ordinary citizens and politicians alike, have taken on an attitude of “lock them up and throw away the key”. While we are all in favor of personal responsibility and accountability, the idea of throwing away the key is not only inhumane, but, in fact, the key isn’t thrown away and these prisoners are not hidden away for the rest of their lives.
In January 2006, there were 8,874 inmates in the Minnesota prison systems. Of those, only 31 were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This means that over 99% of these inmates are indeed coming home and coming back to some community, somewhere. We need to acknowledge this reality and ask ourselves what we can do to welcome them into our communities. What is our responsibility as Catholic Christians to help them become a part of our society so that they have a stake in what happens?
As Catholics we believe in the dignity of human life from birth to death, and while we cannot allow convicted criminals to walk free, we also cannot pretend or ignore their dignity as a human person. Further, we are all familiar with the mandate that Jesus gives us in the scriptures to forgive seventy times seven times. We must look into each person, forgive them their past mistakes, and honor their dignity by seeing them as a person and not just their crime.
This year, instead of marking only one Sunday as Criminal Justice Sunday, the Archdiocese has joined with dozens of other faith groups and organizations to sponsor Criminal Justice Month in October. I encourage you to learn, study, and pray about criminal justice issues in a special way in October, and I encourage you to learn what you can do.
We each can help:
• Pray for those in prison and those being released.
• Work with re-entry programs to offer jobs or training to those being released.
• Mentor someone who is returning to the community.
• Have your parish work with the Criminal Justice Working Group to create survival duffle bags for those recently released. These bags include bus passes, toiletries, resume paper, stamps, hair cut certificate and much more. St. Pascal’s in East St. Paul, St. Patrick’s in Edina, and St. Stephen’s in Minneapolis have all done this and I commend them.
Remember, every person is our sister or brother and we have an obligation to make Jesus known and to see Jesus in the hungry, the homeless, and yes, those in prison.
[ For more information about how your parish can get involved with the Duffle Bag Project, contact Joanne Tromiczak-Neid of the Criminal Justice Working Group, 651-690-7079.]
