Transforming Our Prisons
It's said that USA has more people in prisons than any other country. UK has such an acute prisons crisis that it recently let out thousands early because there was no room for the newly convicted. The principles of restorative justice practised in some local societies in early Christian Ireland, intelligently re-focussed for modern society, could transform our common life. UK's new Government has appointed as Prisons Minister Lord Timpson, a man who has reclaimed some prisoners' lives and offered them jobs in his chain stores upon release. I sent him the following:
The Ministry of Justice and the Minister for Prisons - Restorative Justice: a sketch of principles and programmes in and out of prisons
Vast numbers are incarcerated for most of their lives in prisons in USA and other countries and are part of the work force. The UK’s 2024 Government has appointed as its prisons minister Lord Timpson, who has worked to create in prisons a culture of honesty, restitution, and reclamation, offering released prisoners jobs in his chain stores.
Desert Fathers and Mothers prescribed penances for themselves (replacing eight deadly vices with eight life-renewing virtues) and some tribal leaders in early Christian Ireland invited monasteries to oversee restorative justice rooted in these for people from the general public who had committed offences such as theft, murder or slander. No one today would use all of these penances (slapping a child for coughing would be considered abusive!), but the principles behind these could transform our troubled neighbourhoods and prisons.
Columbanus and others described their suggested penances as medicines for the soul. A person can never undo a theft, murder or act of sexual abuse, but they can learn two things: 1) to feel and ‘own’ the hurt they have caused 2) to offer to give time to serve the aggrieved person if invited, or to do work that gives back to society what the offence took from it. A third process is: before release, to share (e.g. with chaplains and invited guests from outside prison) how they have sought help to overcome their bad habit, or ask for forgiveness., and to read from a letter they have written to an actual or imaginary victim of their crime. (Above all, even if the person they have offended is dismissive, they can learn to seek Divine forgiveness.)
A young man who had murdered a worker on a land-owners’ estate was sent to do penance under Columba on the island of Iona for years. Eventually he was freed to return and do manual work free of charge on that man’s estate. He could not restore the lost life, but he could restore the lost working life that the land-owner had been robbed of. He also did as much as he was able to restore the relationship with the land-owner he had wronged.
There is an epidemic of young men who abuse others. A root of this may be low self-image. The prison service should train them in self-esteem, which means that ‘I am not self-created’.
The Ministry of Justice and the Minister for Prisons - Restorative Justice: a sketch of principles and programmes in and out of prisons
Vast numbers are incarcerated for most of their lives in prisons in USA and other countries and are part of the work force. The UK’s 2024 Government has appointed as its prisons minister Lord Timpson, who has worked to create in prisons a culture of honesty, restitution, and reclamation, offering released prisoners jobs in his chain stores.
Desert Fathers and Mothers prescribed penances for themselves (replacing eight deadly vices with eight life-renewing virtues) and some tribal leaders in early Christian Ireland invited monasteries to oversee restorative justice rooted in these for people from the general public who had committed offences such as theft, murder or slander. No one today would use all of these penances (slapping a child for coughing would be considered abusive!), but the principles behind these could transform our troubled neighbourhoods and prisons.
Columbanus and others described their suggested penances as medicines for the soul. A person can never undo a theft, murder or act of sexual abuse, but they can learn two things: 1) to feel and ‘own’ the hurt they have caused 2) to offer to give time to serve the aggrieved person if invited, or to do work that gives back to society what the offence took from it. A third process is: before release, to share (e.g. with chaplains and invited guests from outside prison) how they have sought help to overcome their bad habit, or ask for forgiveness., and to read from a letter they have written to an actual or imaginary victim of their crime. (Above all, even if the person they have offended is dismissive, they can learn to seek Divine forgiveness.)
A young man who had murdered a worker on a land-owners’ estate was sent to do penance under Columba on the island of Iona for years. Eventually he was freed to return and do manual work free of charge on that man’s estate. He could not restore the lost life, but he could restore the lost working life that the land-owner had been robbed of. He also did as much as he was able to restore the relationship with the land-owner he had wronged.
There is an epidemic of young men who abuse others. A root of this may be low self-image. The prison service should train them in self-esteem, which means that ‘I am not self-created’.
You (or a prisoner) want to lash out? Explore if there is anyone who wishes good will to you, or read about people who exercised great good will, e.g. Jesus. Imagine this growing. How might your behaviour change?
So the principle of restorative justice, which can transform our prisons, is to inculcate a change of heart (the Christian word is repentance) until there is genuine awareness and sorrow for the harm the person’s crime has done, which issues in deeds.
I have been invited (as a public witness) into a prison where a friend led a Restorative Justice course. Most prisoners agreed to write a letter to the person most harmed by their crime and to say sorry (one refused, but let out his anger by quoting an ‘anger psalm’). I found this deeply moving and genuine. But learning to feel, despite emotional blockages, for the person our crime has harmed is only the first step. Doing work or making things that put something back into the society our crime has damaged is a practical outworking. In the case of sexual abuse, it is likely the abused person will want no contact with the abuser, but here the personal transformation involved in the Eight Virtues process can change the future dynamics of the abuser.
I am working on a skeleton programme that can be used in and outside prisons.
Ray Simpson
