Setting prisoners free in 2008

I am amazed at the ways in which seemingly devout followers of Jesus of Nazareth avoid the plain instructions of the one we call “Lord.”

As recorded in the Luke gospel, when Jesus began his public ministry, Jesus went to the synagogue, unrolled the Isaiah scroll and read from chapter 61. He embraced the mission of the Isaiah writer as his own. The mission to which God had called him was to bring good news to poor people, to bring release to those in prison and to bring sight to the blind.

Much of the Christian Church has interpreted this commission spiritually. They see as their first challenge the bringing of salvation to the souls of poor people for the next life. Their second is to set people free from the bondage of their sins. The third is to remove spiritual blindness so people can see things from the church’s perspective.

Without doubting that Jesus had spiritual concerns, I see Jesus as very concerned about the realities of this world. He was a reformer who was concerned about economics, politics, health and social justice. While I see no reason to force a choice between Jesus with spiritual concerns and Jesus the social reformer, I believe Jesus the social reformer has not received the attention that he needs.

The justice concerns of Jesus translate very well into the 21st century. Issues of minimum wage, health care and public safety are all on front burners. These issues are being discussed daily in this election year. Christian citizens should be right in the middle of the discussions. The voice of Jesus is relevant.

But one of the issues raised by Jesus barely gets a mention. This past week, I read that the prison population in the United States has now reached 1 percent of the total population. Three million people in prison in the United States? Yes, you read the number correctly.

Prison-building is a growth industry. We cannot build prisons fast enough. Private enterprise has stepped in to help and is building human warehouses all over the country. At the present time, Alaska keeps almost 1,000 prisoners in private prisons in Arizona.

Prisons in the world of Jesus were very cruel places. Typically, the prisons held people charged with crimes but not yet tried. There was not much build up of prison population because the typical sentence was death. In the Roman Empire the control was brutal. Putting troublemakers to death was a daily exercise. While some sentences were beatings, more often than not, death was the fate of the convicted prisoner. The two men who were crucified with Jesus were typical. Their crime was theft. Their sentence was death.

Prisons have always been cruel places. It is little wonder that Jesus called for the release of prisoners.

The state of Alaska is in a prison-building mood. Our governor is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build more prisons. Most legislators are willing to support her. The corrections commissioner is an advocate of building prisons in remote places so that they will be out of the public sight and the public mind.

But Jesus says to release those who are imprisoned. Christian people are more willing to follow the lead of the governor than to follow Jesus.

Here in Alaska, the growth of the prisoner population can be traced to two bad decisions and one bad practice. The two bad decisions are mandatory sentencing and three strikes and you’re out. The bad practice is the way we release prisoners when they complete their sentences. The bad practice results in the phenomenon of recidivism.

I have little hope in soon overturning mandatory sentencing and the practice of three strikes and you’re out. I am very interested in addressing the recidivism problem. The answer is in the way we welcome people when they are released from prison.

I recently wrote an extended e-mail to the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections and asked for a conversation about how we might better welcome prisoners when released. He never acknowledged my communication. I assume he is too busy building prisons for the governor.

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