National Day of Prayer for Criminal Justice Reform

Encourage your church to participate in the National Day of Prayer for Criminal Justice Reform and contact Laura Markle Downton for more information.

Join with people of faith from around the country and invite your faith community to take part or all of their prayer time the weekend of Sunday, February 20th to lift up prayers for the healing of our communities and an end to mass incarceration in the US. Together, we will lift up the need for a fair criminal justice system based on restorative principles that do not sentence people to unjustly long sentences or target certain racial-ethnic groups, so that the families of the incarcerated can be strengthened and local communities safely restored.

Send us a photo of your faith community in prayer for criminal justice reform. We will be compiling photos from around the country.

The weekend of Sunday, February 20th, we will pray for:

• Empowerment of faith communities to unite our voices in the call for an end to mass incarceration in the US, the creative vision to build communities of opportunity for all children, the courage to resist despair and complacency so that we may confront head-on the injustices of our current criminal justice system, and love that is strong enough to restore and heal our communities. 
• Moral leadership and accountability of elected leaders to support legislation that reflects the values of restorative justice and will care for victims of crime, eliminate unjust and unsafe treatment in the criminal justice system, and access to flourishing for all of our sisters and brothers.

Facts to consider and share with your faith community:

• While the U.S. makes up only 5% of the world's population, it confines 25% of the world's incarcerated, with a total of 2.3 million incarcerated in the US today. This accounts for a 600% increase in the past forty years.
• The US prison industry is one of the fastest growing industries, spending over $60 billion on corrections. 
• Two-thirds of those incarcerated are African-American or Latino/a, and if current trends continue, one in three African American males and one in six Latino males born today will serve time in prison in the US.
• Most incarcerated women, including mothers behind bars, were first survivors of violence. Today, women in US prisons are disproportionately African-American or Latina and, at the time of arrest, earning annual incomes of less than $15,000. 
• Each day in the US, over 90,000 juveniles are held in confinement and 7,500 youth are held in adult jails awaiting trial in criminal court. At the same time, 2,000 children are serving sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP).
  

These are just some of the reasons why we know the current system is broken.

Therefore, we must pray for an end to mass incarceration in the US, for empowerment of faith communities to advocate for transformation, and for moral and accountable leadership by our elected leaders to bring about access to flourishing for all of our sisters and brothers. Please sign up today! Send us a photo of your faith community in prayer for criminal justice reform. We will be compiling photos from around the country.

View our map of prayer activities.

Additional Resources for Reflection:

Art

"What Cannot Be Taken Away" is a collaborative art project orchestrated by artist Evan Bissell, illustrating the various impacts of incarceration on Bay Area families. Its purpose is to invite those affected by incarceration (which is all of us, really) to come to a deeper self-understanding and perspective on our prison system.

Go to: www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/art-gallery/evan-bissell/

Poetry

UNTITLED
by Heather Johnson
womenandprison.org/poetry/view/untitled/

Put down the hand that covers your mouth when you begin to speak about the pain your soul has been bearing for what seems to be an eternity.

Tear down the wall you have built around your heart that allows you to love only from a distance and never build a bond with those whose bodies press against the other side trying to get close to you.

Step out of your armor, put down your shield and learn to trust with caution knowing God will protect you from harm. Do not continue to live your life in fear.

Break free of the chains that have you tied to situations that do not bring you happiness. If you are unhappy you are vulnerable to the temptations we face daily that only bring temporary happiness with an end result of pain.

Lift your feet out of the cement shoes that have you standing in a place and step out on faith. Achieve your goals, explore your dreams, educate your mind, and make use of every talent that you possess.

Remove the glue that keeps your lips sealed and share your deepest thoughts and feelings. Cry, laugh, scream, moan, and whisper until your soul and mind feel at ease. No longer shall you be bound by all the hurt, anger and disappointments of the past.

Hold your head up and dry your eyes for you are restated. The silence is now broken…

For additional poetry from Women + Prison, see: womenandprison.org/poetry/

Videos

Michelle Alexander, 6 minutes on The New Jim Crow
youtu.be/XnqjDVhjM0w

A powerful conversation with Marian Wright Edelman on the cradle to prison pipeline
fora.tv/2009/07/01/Marian_Wright_Edelman_The_Cradle_to_Prison_Pipeline

Books

• The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America by Mark Lewis Taylor
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice by Howard Zehr
• Ambassadors of Reconciliation: New Testament Reflections on Restorative Justice and Peacemaking by Elaine Enns & Ched Myers
• Restorative Justice: Moving Beyond Punishment by Peggy Hutchison and Harmon Wray
• Redeeming the Wounded by B. Bruce Cook
• Criminal Justice: Retribution vs. Restoration? by Eleanor Hannon Judah and Rev. Michael Bryant.

Download Word document to edit.

A CALL FOR AN END TO MASS INCARCERATION IN THE UNITED STATES
AND PASSAGE OF THE NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSION ACT
(Submitted January 2011)

The United Methodist Church's position on the criminal justice system is:

In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system for the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole. Restorative justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes a right relationship with God, self and community. When such relationships are violated or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right. (Social Principles, ¶164H)

United Methodists provide pastoral care for women, men and youth while they are incarcerated, provide direct services for those re-entering society after incarceration, and sponsor various drug and crime prevention services and programs for our constituencies and the community at large. Many congregations are made up in part or entirely by families impacted by the criminal justice system, whether they are formerly incarcerated individuals, victims of crime, or family members. Thus, we have a direct interest in the state of the criminal justice system. It is from this position of incarnational relationship among those directly affected that we see the brokenness of the current criminal justice system in the United States.

We express concern about the current state of the U.S. criminal justice system in that:

• While the U.S. makes up only 5% of the world's population, it confines 25% of the world's incarcerated, with a total of 2.3 million incarcerated in the US today. This accounts for a 600% increase in the past forty years.
• The US prison industry is one of the fastest growing industries, spending over $60 billion on corrections.
• Two-thirds of those incarcerated are African-American or Latino/a, and if current trends continue, one in three African American males and one in six Latino males born today will serve time in prison in the US.
• Most incarcerated women, including mothers behind bars, were first survivors of violence. Today, women in US prisons are disproportionately African-American or Latina and, at the time of arrest, earning annual incomes of less than $15,000.
• Each day in the US, over 90,000 juveniles are held in confinement and 7,500 youth are held in adult jails awaiting trial in criminal court. At the same time, 2,000 children are serving sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP).

As John Wesley's ministry was characterized by a concern for those in prison, and Jesus expressly identified himself as one of those imprisoned, we as United Methodists restate our resolve to support and work for "the creation of a genuinely new system for the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole."

Therefore, we call all United Methodist churches to:

• Engage in study of the biblical basis of restorative justice and discuss how their church might engage in restorative justice ministries. Some resources for this study include The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America by Mark Lewis Taylor, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice by Howard Zehr, Ambassadors of Reconciliation: New Testament Reflections on Restorative Justice and Peacemaking by Elaine Enns & Ched Myers, Restorative Justice: Moving Beyond Punishment by Peggy Hutchison and Harmon Wray, Redeeming the Wounded by B. Bruce Cook, and Criminal Justice: Retribution vs. Restoration? by Eleanor Hannon Judah and Rev. Michael Bryant.
• Support and volunteer with Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries (Each Conference can list their own version of this.)

We as United Methodists also will work and advocate for state and federal policies which include:

• An end to mass incarceration through a fair criminal justice system based on restorative principles that do not sentence people to unjustly long sentences or target certain racial or ethnic groups, so that the families of the incarcerated can be strengthened and local communities safely restored.
• Passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, sponsored by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA). This legislation will create a bipartisan Commission to review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform. This will increase public safety and provide common sense alternatives to increasingly long prison sentences which, over the past twenty years, have stretched the system beyond its sustainable limits.

We call Conference Secretary to send this resolution to the President Obama and all congressional representatives from [name of state].