Joe had been incarcerated at the Palmer Correctional Center near Sutton. His release date arrived. On the morning of his release, he, along with others, was loaded on a bus and was transported to a parking lot in the middle of Palmer.  Joe stepped off the bus at 6 a.m. His only possessions were the clothes he was wearing and the $40 he had saved from his in-prison job, working in the weight room.

In the mission statement of the Department of Corrections, the DOC proudly proclaims that they provide “supervised community reintegration.”

Joe has spent the majority of his last 30 years in the Alaska prison system.  I first met Joe when giving time as a chaplain to the Department of Corrections at Highland Mountain Correctional Facility near Eagle River.  He came to a class that I was teaching. The year was 1983. I lost track of Joe and had no contact with him until my phone rang recently. Joe has no viable connections outside of prison. His mother, who lived in Wasilla, died recently. His younger brother lives in Oregon, and Joe has had no contact with him for over 10 years.  Joe’s sister lives in Anchorage and has a serious problem with alcohol. It was a far reach to call someone he had known briefly 25 years ago.

After receiving the call, I drove to the Palmer Correctional Center to visit him and to get a feel for what he faced in returning to life outside prison. I learned one important fact. Every crime that Joe had ever committed was related to alcohol abuse. I came away from the prison suspecting that Joe, now past 50, had finally hit bottom.

During the years, when going in and out of Alaska jails, Joe’s pattern was well established. When out of prison, he drank and got into trouble. When in prison he did not drink. He obeyed the rules. He became a cook. Prison guards liked him. Joe, unfortunately, became institutionalized.

On the day I picked him up in the Palmer parking lot, I took him to a local restaurant for breakfast. I was joined by two men from my church congregation. One is a recovering alcoholic, who has experienced homelessness and other bumps in his life experience. The other is a retired gentleman, who trusts the instruction of Jesus about giving offending persons a new chance, not once, not seven times, but 70 times seven times.

With the help of my friends and me (and zero help from DOC), by the end of the day Joe had attended two Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. He had a temporary roof over his head with a bed on which to sleep.  Joe had picked up a couple of changes of clothes at one of our wonderful local second-hand stores. He had filled out two job applications and had scheduled two job interviews.

The Alaska Department of Corrections now houses more than 5,000 offenders. Prison expansion and building of very expensive institutions is a major Alaska growth industry.

The DOC houses fewer than 1,000 long-term prisoners.  Almost two-thirds of all prisoners (over 3,000) are scheduled for release in less than one year.  With the female prison population, 83 percent are scheduled for release in less than one year.

There are certainly new offenders, who are coming into the Department of Corrections system.  However, the growth of the prison system is almost entirely dependent on recidivism.  Recidivism is the revolving door of the repeat offender.  Recidivism is Joe multiplied by hundreds and hundreds.

I believe that human beings, to reach their full potential, need to be free, not incarcerated.  However, some people need the restraint of a prison because they abuse freedom and become a danger to the general public. Joe and others like him do not fit that mold.

The Department of Corrections admits that they hold more than 400 people who suffer from some sort of long-term mental illness. Their plans for “supervised community reintegration” are nonexistent.  Those with mental illnesses become prime candidates for recidivism, just as do alcoholics and certain drug addicts.

Joe has been released from prison several times. He has spent 30 years of his life going through the revolving door. Until this last time, he has never had anyone waiting for him when he got off the bus.

The state of Alaska has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping Joe in jail. Surely there must be a better way for our society to help the Joes of this world.

But who cares? The Department of Corrections thrives on growth. Helping Joes might reduce the prison population and reduce the number of jobs.

Churches do not do a good job of meeting the bus in the parking lot. They would rather go inside prisons and “save souls.”  The parking lot is strange territory.

Businesses do not want to hire Joes. Landlords do not want to rent to Joes.

Let’s build more prisons.

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.