INFORM-ACTION
Issue
Number 38 - June
2001
Catholic
Social Teaching and PRISONS
During
the Jubilee Year, Pope John Paul II visited
prisons in Rome and proclaimed a Jubilee message
for prisoners in which he upheld the human
dignity of the prisoner. In his message, the
Pope made the point:
At
times prison life runs the risk of
depersonalizing individuals, because
it deprives them of so many opportunities
of self expression.
In
a world that cries out for more law and order
and where governments are spending millions
of dollars on the construction of new prisons,
the Pope's message is a timely one. Although
justice demands that crime and criminal behaviour
be addressed, Catholic Social Teaching (CST)
can shed light on how justice can be exercised
within the prison system. Together with the
Pope, the US Catholic Bishops have reflected
recently on how CST and the key principles
enunciated in this teaching can help frame
an approach to justice, crime and prisons.
The
Dignity of Human Life
The
US Catholic Bishops' statement is entitled: Responsibility,
Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic
Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice.
In this they state:
Our
society seems to prefer punishment to
rehabilitation and retribution to restoration
thereby indicating a failure to recognize
prisoners as human beings.
The
ethos on which the majority of prison systems
operate is that of punishment and retribution.
It is this understanding of justice that leads
to the dehumanising effect of prison. For example,
solitary confinement for months and years on
end must be abhorred and condemned as a form
of mindless retribution. An alternative approach
is that of restorative justice which considers
both the offender and the victim as human persons,
who both have rights and responsibilities which
must be exercised.
Human
Rights and Responsibilities
On
this question, the US Bishops state:
Crime
and correction are at the intersection
of rights and responsibilities.
In
other words, those who commit crime have violated
the rights of others and the state does need
to exercise responsibility in holding those
who offend accountable. However, offenders
also have rights that are not to be violated.
According
to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
punishment for criminal activity has three
principal purposes:
- The
preservation and protection of the common
good of society
- The
restoration of public order
- The
restoration or conversion of the offender.
The
common good involves the restoration of both
the victim and the offender. The harm done
needs to be repaired and the offender needs
the opportunity to make compensation for the
offence committed. Only then will the common
good be preserved.
This
theme of CST requires that public policy be
assessed on how it affects those most vulnerable
in society. It is well known that many people
in prisons are the uneducated, the mentally
ill, and others who have been discriminated
against by the society that imprisons them.
While not excusing the violation inherent in
criminal, especially violent, acts, CST calls
society to consider the whole human
person who has offended - socio-economic status,
mental health, race and ethnicity all need
to be considered when we consider that many
in the prison population are there because
they have been disadvantaged in some way or
other.
The
Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes states:
When
people work they develop themselves as
well. They learn much, they cultivate
their resources, they go outside themselves
and beyond themselves.
Prisons
need to provide such work opportunities so
that those in them are not left with time on
their hands in which to feel useless or bored.
Work for them can also be a way of regaining
a sense of self-worth and an opportunity to
give something back to the community that they
have harmed.
Solidarity
calls all of society to take responsibility
for the common good, to be concerned about
the rights of all people. The US Bishops' document
recognises the way in which solidarity is applied
to the prisons issue:
Through
the lens of solidarity, those who commit
crimes and are hurt by crime are not
issues or problems; they are sisters
and brothers, members of one human family.
Solidarity calls us to insist on responsibility
and seek alternatives that do not simply
punish, but rehabilitate, heal and restore.
Websites
that contain further information regarding
prison reform and restorative justice include:
For
more information contact the SAO on phone (07) 3891 5866 or
email.
Prison
fence photo courtesy of Catholic Justice
and Peace Commission, Brisbane
