wordplayediting.comwordplayediting.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SeniorThesis.docx · Web...

Accepting Ex-Convicts Back into Society

Lucas AbegglenDecember 11, 2014

ACCEPTING EX-CONVICTS 1

I. IntroductionIt did not take much to get under the big guy’s skin. Say a couple of comments to

his dislike, and a person might find him- or herself staring into a pair of beady blue eyes enveloped by a flushed red face consumed with an anger hot enough to melt ice. Such commenting culprits might have been able to stand the sight were it not for the fear that his clenched fist would swiftly strike at any moment. Teddy Chamberlain did not want to be known for his temper, for his lack of self-control, but it was precisely those weaknesses that were his downfall. Living with his longtime girlfriend, Teddy let a heated dinner argument get the best of him, and a series of swings and kicks later, his girlfriend found herself bruised, broken, and scarred, and Teddy found himself in a prison cell for four years—left to deal with his own sort of scarring.

When he was finally released, Teddy soon realized that his path to healing and coping, his path back into society, was reaching its most difficult moments. At his job interviews, the employers did not see his excellent work ethic or terrific organizational skills. They noticed his criminal record, so they only saw his harshness and his imposing posture, followed by his irritability when they would tell him that he was, “just not what we are looking for.” At social events, people did not see his immense capacity for love or his quirky sense of humor. They saw his awkwardness, his nervous, darting eyes, and his visible difficulty mingling and decided that his story was not worth hearing, not worth sharing in. In his return to his family, they did not remember the adventurous boy, the driven teenager, or the passionate man. Instead, they remembered his temper, they remembered his violent outbursts, and thus only saw his unemployment, his brokenness, and his irresolution and decided that he was to be treated with caution, only to be spoken to with judgment and with wounding condescension.

Teddy, thirty-seven years old, looking for a second chance, was only greeted with the same darkness that had thrust him into his difficult position in the first place. Inflicted by his moment of affliction, he found himself socially characterized by his flaws, with any flickering flame of positive disposition or hopefulness put out by the weakness that had consumed him for but a moment.

Teddy, like many other former prisoners, was guilty for what he did and deserved to face

the justice that was brought upon him. The cold and closed-minded reception he received on his

entrance back into society, however, is reflective of a world that features an egregious dearth of

hospitality and forgiveness, and instead functions primarily through self-interest and self-

preservation. The body of Christ must recognize this menacing posture and look to counter this

unwelcoming culture that leaves no room for the broken and socially alienated.

Investigating the difficulty that ex-convicts have in a return to functionality in regular

society elicits a call to the Church to be proponents of the coming Kingdom of God, made


present by Jesus, as well as to become servants and ultimately a welcoming community that

expresses forgiveness and hospitality—exemplified by the Year of Jubilee—leading to healing,

acceptance, and opportunities for hopefulness. Using its own facilities and relying on its

members to be vulnerable vessels of community and hope, the Church will welcome and

approach these former criminals into society by implementing a mentoring program,

supplemented by recreational leagues, ministerial opportunities, and instructional meetings to

help teach résumé building and good job-interviewing techniques.

II. Ecclesiology

There is a darkness pervading the world in the form of ex-convicts’ own hopelessness,

which is perpetuated by society’s rejection of them. The Church must meet this darkness head

on, bringing the light and hope of Christ to these social outcasts by epitomizing the kingdom of

God, being a welcoming community, serving in the model of Jesus’ servanthood, and

functioning as a proponent of a fresh start as exemplified by the Year of Jubilee. In living these

models, the Church might hope to create a place of hospitality for the ex-convicts, encouraging

healing and creating opportunities for them to move forward. Dulles writes that models have the

“capacity to lead to new theological insights.”1 The Church needs to define the lens through

which it sees the issue of the acceptance of ex-convicts back into society so that it can embody a

proper theology to be an aid to progress for these social strangers.

The world as it is today is a world characterized by competing human authority. It is a

time wherein self-interest outweighs communal interest, and it is the strong, the clever, and the

wealthy who are revered. Yet the Church must be reminded that the kingdom of the world is not

reflective of the coming kingdom of God. Watson writes that the kingdom of God “is the

1 Avery Dulles, Models of the Church (New York: Bantam Doubleday (Image Books), 1987), 25.


sovereign act of God.”2 It cannot be brought by any man, and in order for the rule of God to

pervade the world, the church must first submit and let it rule in them.3 In recognizing its futility

in bringing about the kingdom of God, the Church can hope to become a place of ready

submission to God’s good future. By ridding itself of the idea that it might, on its own, somehow

bring about the reign of God, the Church can remove the dangerous and harmful temptation to

act as if it is the kingdom itself and its bringer. This sort of posture is especially important for the

acceptance of the stranger, the other, because in overcoming its own need for power, the Church

will no longer deal with the stranger and others with condescension and judgment, but rather

with communal prayer and hopefulness.

Perhaps the most important of Watson’s truths about the kingdom of God, however, is

that “it is the reversal of worldly values.”4 The reign of God, according to Jesus, will be counter

to what the world thinks conventional.5 If people are consumed by a sense of self-interest, even

mere comfortableness, then they will have no reason or desire to meet the alienated—like ex-

convicts—with hospitality. There is simply no worldly logic in making oneself vulnerable and

open to someone with a history or pattern of violating those who are vulnerable and open. But if

the coming kingdom of God is to be antithetical to worldly values, then it is in fact the duty of

the Church to point itself toward the darkness, toward the uncomfortable task of meeting those

on the outside so that it is willing to be a submissive and vulnerable friend to the aggressive and

untrustworthy friendless.

2 Watson, David, I Believe in the Church, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1978), 52.3 Watson, 53.4 Watson, 58.5 Watson, 59.


Ladd also has a similar treatment of the model of the kingdom of God. He explains that

the Kingdom of God comes to those who “yield their lives to the rule of the Spirit.”6 It is an

inheritance.7 If the Church can assume a humble mindset, then it will limit its thirst for power

and become a place that is defined by its patient and obedient waiting and hoping for God’s

coming rule. Moreover, in understanding that the kingdom of God is an inheritance, the Church

is enabling itself to mirror such inheritance in the way that it treats ex-convicts. By being a

model of accepting God’s gifts rather than manufacturing its own blessings, the Church can

encourage the stranger to be hopeful and to accept forgiveness and hospitality rather than feeling

like he or she must force others to accept him or her.

In addition, Ladd writes, “the parables of the Kingdom make it clear that in some sense,

the Kingdom is present and at work in the world.”8 Snyder reinforces this, remarking that the

kingdom of God is both good news and the assurance of triumph over evil.9 The future promise

of the kingdom of God in addition to its current presence is important for the Church to grasp. It

must remember Jesus and observe how Jesus brought the kingdom with his life, while

subsequently being hopeful for its future coming. Acknowledging a good present as well as a

good future is necessary for the Church if it is to show acceptance and hospitality to ex-convicts

as well as to create opportunity for them. In such acknowledgement, the Church addresses the

outsider’s concern with his or her turbulent past, unhappy present, and dim future. There is no

better counter to such bleakness than a church marked by its conviction that the kingdom will

6 George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 17.7 Ladd, 17.8 Ladd, 18.9 Howard A. Snyder, Liberating the Church (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1983), 26-27.


bring a final victory over evil. By believing in a good present and future, the Church can inject a

sense of hope into those ex-convicts who feel hopeless.

In spite of this good present reality of the kingdom, manipulation and coercion—in the

name of self-interest—still exist and shape the thoughts and actions of many in the world.

Hauerwas believes that the kingdom of God counters such a mindset, saying, “because we have

confidence that God has raised this crucified man, we believe that forgiveness and love are

alternatives to the coercion the world thinks necessary for existence.”10 The Church must

understand that people are not a means to success, and that manipulation—whether in language

or action—is counter to what the kingdom of God represents. Particularly considering the broken

and uncertain spirit of many ex-convicts, the Church must be cautious not to coerce or dominate

because such actions do not lead to a sense of acceptance and hospitality. It is only through love

and forgiveness that the Church can welcome these broken social outcasts.

Hauerwas also points the Church toward the broken when he claims, “the community

created by the kingdom cannot shield itself from the outsider. It must have confidence that God

is present even in the unclean—a confidence made possible only because the community itself

was formed by the presence of the ultimate stranger, Jesus Christ.”11 The Church does not need

much more evidence than this to support its endeavors for meeting ex-convicts with acceptance

and hospitality. Jesus’ openness to the unclean was, and still is, countercultural, but as is widely

known among Christians, the Church is called to be countercultural in order to bring the

kingdom of God to the earth. Moreover, if Jesus was once the outsider that the world often

scorns, then the Church effectively loves Jesus in its openness to the socially outcast person.

10 Stanley Hauerwas, John Berkman, and Michael G. Cartwright, The Hauerwas Reader (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), 133.11 Hauerwas, 131.


Therefore, the model of the kingdom of God is crucial for the Church to understand. The

Church must embody that model’s submissiveness, its implications for the future, and its

willingness to meet the unclean in order to bring the kingdom of God into the darkness of the

way that the world treats ex-convicts.

Another glaring darkness in the world is its lack of welcome and hospitality to those who

are different, to those whose stories follow an unfamiliar plotline. People naturally enjoy the

company of those who are similar to them, but as seen in the model of the kingdom of God, such

comfortableness is not a characteristic of the Church that is to be hospitable and welcoming.

Placher discerns regrettably that the world supports alienation and has left the importance of

community and family behind.12 It is important the Church reverses this worldly trend and finds

its force in its community so that the alienated can find acceptance there. Placher continues

saying that the Church’s fellowship must be benevolent, both spiritually and materially.

Whatever gifts God gives must then be poured out to others.13 Placher’s intentional inclusion of

the material as well as the spiritual should be carefully considered. When the Church is content

with providing merely spiritual care, it misses an opportunity to provide material and practical

gifts to the poor and powerless. Such a command calls the Church not just to a distant,

ideological form of hospitality, but invites its people to partake in a tangible form of service that

requires actual human connection and community.

Keen approaches the issue from a similar vein, but specifically addresses the Church’s

responsibility to listen rather than to judge. Keen writes, “when we are too swift to judge the

words of someone or how well they articulate themselves, we miss an opportunity to open

12 William C. Placher, ed, Essentials of Christian Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 229.13 Placher, 237.


ourselves to them and love them.”14 Keen is pointing out the widespread problem in the secular

and sacred world alike that is an inability—or possibly just a lack of desire—to hear the story of

another. If the storyteller does not articulate the story to the liking of the listener, that listener is

inclined to dismiss the story altogether. What the Church should do is remove the judgmental

lens with which so many observe and replace it with a passion for seeking out the stories of

others; rather than waiting until it is content with the way the story is being told, the Church must

vigorously listen until it is content that the story of the other has been told, however that

happens. Within this mental framework, the Church can open itself to storytellers of all walks,

especially the outsiders such as ex-convicts, and thus provide the hospitality and acceptance they

need.

Sutherland tackles a particular issue in the giving of hospitality, calling it “invisibility.”

He writes, “Invisibility is a major detriment to the practice of hospitality in urban areas. Because

we encounter dozens or hundreds of people each day, everyone becomes a stranger to us.”15 He

is addressing a common deficiency that plagues the world today. The Church must counter this

issue of invisibility with efforts toward intentionality and listening to the stories of others.

The Church as a welcoming community should embody genuine hospitality and

acceptance. Boersma tackles this concept, writing, “Hospitality that is truly evangelical does not

have the feelings of well-being of individual Church members as its first concern. True

hospitality reaches out to the other and can never be satisfied with erecting impermeable

boundaries.”16 The Church, therefore, must take extreme caution that its expressions of

14 Craig Keen, After Crucifixion: The Promise of Theology (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. 2013), 3.15 Arthur Sutherland, I Was a Stranger: A Christian Theology of Hospitality. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 60.16 Hans Boersma, Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2004), 211.


hospitality, of welcoming, are not self-interested and for the sole sake of creating a feel-good

atmosphere. The true hospitality of which Boersma writes will, in the case of an ex-convict, meet

the other in his or her circumstance, offering love without judgment and acceptance as part of the

community without encouraging further destructive action. Ultimately, the Church must practice

hospitality with discernment in order to embody a welcoming community that might hope to

create healing and offer positive opportunity.

In order to greet ex-convicts with hospitality, healing, and opportunity, the Church must

also reflect the model of servanthood, as exemplified by Christ. Snyder writes, “Jesus is an

appropriate model for ministry. He was born to die and his teachings and life conflicts with the

way of the world”17. Jesus’ countercultural message is just as important for being a servant as it

is for the kingdom of God. The Church must remember that His life was not a militaristic or

political takeover of authority, but rather a life that proclaimed the kingdom of God through

servanthood. In remembering this, the Church can also serve as a ministry that counters the

worldly culture that abandons the ex-convict rather than serving him. Lohfink furthers this

proclamation of Jesus’ exemplary service and ministry, claiming that Jesus’ authority is

paradoxical in that it is unprotected and quite vulnerable.18 He makes an important claim to

which the Church must listen, because as the body of Christ, the Church cannot afford to be

consumed by the pursuit of authority that forgets vulnerability and thrives on domination. The

members of such a community must not see the socially broken and instantly assume dominion

over them because of the others’ lowered social status. Such a sequence of thought and action

would be to pay no regard to Jesus’ ministry, a ministry that valued the poor and powerless. In

17 Snyder, 135.18 Gerhard Lohfink, Jesus and Community, Trans. By John Galvin (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 116.


remembering that Jesus’ authority is built on vulnerability, however, the Church can function as

a model of servanthood that fosters a community of hospitality, healing, and opportunity.

Finally, the Year of Jubilee is a biblical model that encourages opportunity. While its

expression in scripture deals with the freedom from financial debt, including slavery, the concept

of release from bondage applies very well to the release from prison that ex-convicts experience.

It is the Church’s responsibility, therefore, to take that physical release from prison, from

bondage, and further it into a release from bondage socially and emotionally. Sider explains the

positive implications of the Year of Jubilee, writing, “The Jubilee Principle also provides for

self-help and self-development. With his land returned, the poor person could again earn his own

living.”19 Sider touches on the primary purpose of the model when he mentions the provision of

self-help and self-development. The Church, when it remembers the Year of Jubilee, can

function as a community of forgiveness, as a community that sets forth new hope for those who

have done wrong in their past. By exemplifying this model, the Church can acknowledge that

there are those who have become indebted; then, by permitting ex-convicts to release their debts

in remembrance of the coming kingdom of God, it can provide an opportunity of hope for those

ex-convicts.

It is crucial that the Church address the issues surrounding the acceptance of former

criminals back into society by embodying and exemplifying the models of the coming kingdom

of God, the Church as a welcoming community, servanthood as exemplified by Jesus, and the

Year of Jubilee. These theological models will help shape the Christian community into a people

that will be prepared to meet the broken and the other, so that such strangers are not left stranded

in a world consumed by its blind self-interest, but are greeted with hospitality, catalyzing

healing, and opportunity.

19 Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Dallas: World Publishing, 1997), 89.


III. Anthropology

In order for the Church to truly meet the broken individuals who are ex-convicts within

the framework of the aforementioned models, it must become aware of those ex-convicts’ issues

and needs, so it might attempt to understand them. Each former prisoner has his20 own personal

context, a worldview he lives out. Such contexts are indubitably worlds apart from those in the

Church; thus, it is imperative that the Church understands the difficulties and desires of ex-

convicts in order to bridge the expansive gap between worldviews. The myriad of challenges

newly released criminals face stretch from the social through the economic and into the spiritual

realm. New to freedom and self-reliance, ex-convicts wrestle with adjustment to their new

situation, highlighting their struggles with decision-making and leaving them prone to

recidivism. Creating financial stability and independence—starting with finding a job—marks

yet another hindrance to these former prisoners in conquering their feelings of isolation and

rejection from the world, a victory that is necessary for their acceptance of responsibility for their

actions and subsequent healing.

The most noticeable issues that ex-convicts encounter come from the social sphere,

beginning with their unfamiliarity with being able to make their own decisions. Stephen Cox, in

his sobering account of prison life, makes clear the absence of freedom behind bars. He explains

the strictness of the prisoners’ daily routine, writing, “After your breakfast you’re marched back

to your cellhouse” and “around noon, you’re marched to the mess hall.”21 He further illustrates

the inmates’ lack of freedom, claiming that they must be “permitted” if they wish to do

20 Use of “his” is to reflect majority male population of ex-convicts, not to be gender exclusive.21 Stephen Cox, The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison (New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2009), 52.


something as simple as exercise.22 Prisoners do not have the luxury of many of the everyday

decisions that those not incarcerated are able to make. Seemingly insignificant choices—such as

when to eat a particular meal, or what time to go to sleep and wake up, or even what to wear—

are stripped from those behind bars. Such rigid structure, however, is only the surface of the

submission that inmates feel. The jailed also become slaves to a certain method of social

interaction. Sabine Heinlein’s discussion with a former inmate named Bruce sheds some light on

this issue. Recalling his time in prison, Bruce remarks, “you gotta come in and set your territory.

It’s gotta be known that Bruce will fight.”23 This sort of mindset is not unfamiliar to anyone who

has seen a movie set in a prison, but to actually observe such an account forces the

acknowledgement of the inherently violent and destructive culture within prisons. Bruce’s

passing comment reminds the Church of the fact that prisoners are trapped in an unhealthy

system wherein self-preservation is dependent upon intimidation and aggression—values that, if

carried into society, would surely cause personal destruction.

Entering back into the freedom of regular society, therefore, is bound to present a

plethora of challenges for former prisoners. For Angel, another ex-convict about whom Heinlein

writes, some of the toughest moments of the transition from jail to freedom were in times of

independent decision-making.24 Heinlein writes, “The first time Angel went to the Fairway

Market in West Harlem to buy spaghetti sauce, he was outright terrified. There were hundreds of

different spaghetti sauces. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He fled back to the Castle without

buying anything and put all thought of making spaghetti out of his head.”25 She further recounts

22 Cox, 52.23 Sabine Heinlein, Among Murderers: Life After Prison (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013), 40.24 Heinlein, 28.25 Heinlein, 28.


Angel’s being overwhelmed by having to make other simple decisions.26 While such a story may

not seem significant, the deeper implications certainly call for an attentive eye. In the context of

grocery shopping, where the importance of choices does not exceed things like which spaghetti

sauce to choose, there is no real reason for worry. When the store turns into a street, however,

and the decision is no longer which sauce to buy but whether to assault the man who just

confronted him, the ex-convict’s unfamiliarity with personal decision-making all of a sudden

becomes an apodictically grave matter. In addition, the fatigue created by a simple trip to the

grocery store highlights the issue that even ordinary tasks can take a toll on the willpower of ex-

convicts, leaving them especially prone to recidivism.

Another widespread issue inhibiting ex-convicts’ return to society is the stigma attached

to them. Melinda Schlager highlights the effect of stigma, writing “ultimately, stigma can and

does impact how offenders view themselves and how others view them,”27. She exposes the root

of the issue of stigma, which is that ex-convicts themselves are self-aware of its effects. Such

self-awareness effectively solidifies their label as a former prisoner rather than propelling them

toward healing and redemption. There is no question that there is a negative stigma pinned to a

person after he or she has been incarcerated, and a study by Winnick and Bodkin reveals this:

their study shows that only 55% of the participants agreed that most people would accept an ex-

convict as a close friend and that 83% agree that most people think less of a person who has been

to prison.28 While the participants are not admitting to holding such viewpoints themselves, their

belief that such viewpoints are, nonetheless, held provides a clear window into how ex-convicts

26 Heinlein, 28.27 Melinda Schlager, Rethinking the Reentry Paradigm: A Blueprint for Action (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2013), 198.28 Terri A. Winnick and Mark Bodkin, “Anticipated Stigma and Stigma Management Among those to be Labeled “Ex-Con”, Deviant Behavior 29, no. 4 (Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis Inc., 2008), 309.


are received back into society. Winnick and Bodkin’s data reveals that former prisoners are

likely to be seen, if not necessarily as lesser people, at least as people who are broken. More

positive, however, are the statistics about ex-convicts themselves. Winnick and Bodkin found

that there is a strong desire among former prisoners to educate others about prison life,29

although the mere 24% of ex-convicts who were willing to be honest about their criminal history

in looking for a job reveals that they recognize their former activity as being a potential

hindrance to employment.30 The data suggests that former prisoners anticipate the negative

stigma surrounding them, which only contributes to their feelings of isolation. For people

experiencing freedom for the first time in years, adopting the negative stigma that comes with

being an ex-convict slows the path to healing and acceptance, and thus a way of managing and

conquering the stigma is a definite need of these former criminals.

The ex-convict stigma is not free from the influences of race and ethnicity. Stereotypes,

and the thoughts and actions founded by those stereotypes, are a large part of how society

interacts with those who are different. Even Heinlein admits having to resist the thought that a

group of black men on a corner in Harlem are probably selling drugs.31 There are certainly

statistics and patterns that fuel such stereotypes: a study showed that 10% of black men between

the ages 24 to 29 are in jail—more than 7% higher than the next highest ethnicity.32 While

statistics are merely numbers offering an evaluation of a particular situation in a particular setting

and will thus never resemble critical thought, these empirical data are easily used by society to

create generalizations and to further stereotypes and stigmas. These stigmas are destructive

because they immediately limit the identity of that particular ex-convict to his past crime, rather

29 Winnick and Bodkin, 311.30 Winnick and Bodkin, 311.31 Heinlein, 78.32 Sandra M. Alters, "Characteristics of Inmates." Prisons and Jails: A Deterrent to Crime? 7 (Detroit: Gale, 2006).


than leaving an avenue for deeper value as a human. Schlager exposes the way that media

perpetuates the issue, writing “information about criminal justice is generally reserved for talking

about the bad; rape, murder, and mayhem. And who is usually broadcast as the bad guy? A

person of color.”33 Therefore, not only do ex-prisoners have a dire need to escape, manage, or

conquer their stigma as a prisoner, but they also need to counter their stigma as a member of a

particular race.

The final major social issue that former prisoners must deal with is resisting the urge to

commit their crimes again. According to Schlager, rearrests happen soon after release: “within

the first year of release, rearrests accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total amount of

recidivism observed.”34 This data seems in line with Heinlein’s story of Angel’s difficulty

making decisions fresh out of a place where personal decision-making was sparse to nonexistent.

Ex-convicts, therefore, struggle with recidivism—especially soon after their release—that can

likely be connected with their difficulty handling the decision-making that comes with freedom

and independence.

Recidivism, like stigma, extends to the spheres of race, gender, and age. Schlager makes

note of this in the race and gender arenas in her analysis of recidivism data, writing, “black men

were more likely than women to be rearrested, re-convicted, and reincarcerated.”35 She goes on

to address age, writing “the younger the offender was at the time of release, the higher the

likelihood that they recidivated. Eighty percent of offenders under the age of 18 were rearrested

within three years of release compared with 45.3% of offenders who were 45 or older.”36

Recidivism is, therefore, a severe and prevalent problem among those released from prison into

33 Schlager, 200.34 Schlager, 158.35 Schlager, 158.36 Schlager, 158.


freedom. Those criminals who return to the vices that imprisoned them in the first place in

essence render the corrective aspect of a prison futile. Moreover, in returning to destructive

activity, ex-convicts further trap themselves in their hopeless circumstance rather than pushing

toward the redemption and hope for the future that is needed for healing.

Another realm in which ex-convicts struggle is economics, particularly in terms of

finding jobs and creating financial stability for themselves. It is easy to see that a criminal record

might inhibit a person from obtaining a job, especially when there are competitors who have

clean records. Delgado’s exploration into statistics and research in this area yields supporting

data. He writes “while almost two-thirds of prisoners in a Maryland study held jobs prior to

incarceration, rates of employment post-incarceration are considerably less”37. He further adds

that even when jobs were found, the pay was usually less compared to pre-incarceration.38 This

Maryland study reveals that despite the unbiased opinion that employers might claim to hold,

there is statistical evidence that suggests otherwise. Ex-convicts, new to their freedom and

moreover always at risk of letting idleness propel them into recidivism, are in need of something

constructive and purposeful—such as a job—to occupy their time. More than just being effective

in providing a healthy structure for ex-convicts, jobs also provide the means for them to obtain

adequate sustenance and quality of life (just like for anyone else).

Moreover, in an incredibly competitive job market, former prisoners not only need to

dodge the stigma of their past, they also need to exemplify the skills necessary to be competent

as a worker. Many prisoners, however, have not had the opportunity to develop such skills while

behind bars and are thus at a tremendous disadvantage. Heinlein provides an image that

exemplifies these issues when writing about observing a program designed to prepare ex-

37 Melvin Delgado, Prisoner Reentry at Work: Adding Business to the Mix (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2012), 93.38 Delgado, 93.


convicts to join the workforce: “many of WeCare’s students were missing teeth, were covered in

faded tattoos, and had visible scars. Most looked as if they had just gotten out of bed.”39

Heinlein’s description paints a picture of people who are unprepared to enter the workforce.

Thus, the need for proper education on finding employment is overwhelming for the formerly

incarcerated. The need for proper employment training becomes even further magnified when

considering that the alternative is often illegal activity –– the gateway to recidivism.

Likely, the deepest needs of by ex-convicts are in the spiritual realm. Like anyone with

immense guilt or shame, what former prisoners long for is peace of mind about their

circumstances so that they can take responsibility for them, and healing can ensue. Part of the

healing process comes from the ex-convicts first shedding the negative way that they are viewed

by society. Maruna elucidates “in the black-and-white world of good guys and bad guys, one is

either a good person who makes some forgivable mistakes or a common criminal who deserves

no sympathy.”40 This description clearly highlights the unfortunate, often unforgiving, social

circumstance in which ex-convicts find themselves.

Compounding the issue of social stigma that former prisoners face is a struggle to find

ways to cope with their past offenses. Heinlein writes about ex-convict Angel, relating that he

told her “the person he was most afraid of in this world was himself.”41 Angel’s self-reflection

provides an insight into the way that the shame that former offenders feel pervades into their

spirit, even diminishing self-confidence. In addition, Heinlein remembers feeling uncomfortable

with Angel’s ability to abruptly break out of the graveness of telling his story of the murder that

put him in jail to telling “a joke.”42 She wondered, “maybe it is possible to distance yourself from

39 Heinlein, 85.40 Shadd Maruna, Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2001), 5.41 Heinlein, 120.42 Heinlein, 55.


your crime and your past to the extent that the murderer seems like a completely different

person. Maybe it was even necessary if you wanted to ‘fit in’.”43 This vein of coping – distancing

ones self from past action – appears to be necessary for Angel to function in society. However,

such a method is counterproductive to taking responsibility for action and moving forward into

healing. Angel’s difficulty spiritually upon release from prison is reflective of how many former

prisoners may be challenged to find healing. Ultimately, such stories unveil a serious need for a

healthy way that former prisoners can face their past, while moving forward into a better future.

The needs of former inmates released into the freedom of society are vast and viciously

apparent. Challenges pervade into several realms, most prominently in the social, economic, and

spiritual spheres. Devoid of all independence while in prison, ex-convicts are thrust into a society

that demands good decision-making skills, money, and a clear mind to succeed. The challenges

they face, which so often lead to recidivism, are an issue and call for tangible action on behalf of

the Church in the way of seminars, training, and community groups.

IV. Ethical Response

Struggling both spiritually and financially and finding immense difficulty reentering a

society that operates on a vastly different order than prison, ex-convicts deal with a myriad of

social issues that must be acknowledged and fought by the Church—social issues that highlight

ex-convicts’ need for healing, financial opportunity, and assimilation. The practical way that the

Church can provide this answer to the needs of ex-convicts is through a ministry response that

features communal gatherings, outreach opportunities, job training, and seminars for Christian

employers.

43 Heinlein, 56.


The first focus of the response program, which will include both ex-convicts and willing

members of the Church, is the communal gathering aspect. This facet will be based on a weekly

dinner and fellowship time at the Church. During the weekly dinners, the role of the Church

members will be to prepare the food as well as to interact socially with the ex-convicts. The

Church members should be operating under the four biblical models of the coming kingdom of

God, servanthood, welcoming community, and Year of Jubilee. The members can exhibit their

servanthood in the way that they donate their time and energy to preparing and serving the

meals, as well as the cleanup following. Moreover, the members will be able to directly confront

the feelings of isolation and rejection pressed on the spirits of the former prisoners in the way

that they provide healthy and encouraging hospitality in their welcoming posture. The evening

will begin with a time an hour of fellowship in the main hall, followed by the serving and eating

of dinner.

After dinner, the former prisoner attendees will split into groups arranged by their

experiences and crimes committed. The purpose of this is not to further cement the ex-convicts’

identities as committers of those particular crimes; rather, it is to group former offenders with

others sharing similar experiences and social dispositions in order to attack isolation and

rejection. Each separate group will be led by a particular capable Church member who will

facilitate—and not dominate—a time of dialogue and sharing. Schlager writes about the

importance of a strengths-based attitude: “A strengths-based approach offers collaborative

relationships, encourages accountability, responsibility through positive action, promotes people,

maximizes capabilities, minimizes problems, and focuses on problems at the individual and

community level.”44 The discussions and fellowship must be approached through this lens so that

the time can be effective in gradually breaking down the negative stigma felt by former prisoners

44 Schlager, 249


while creating an atmosphere that encourages their positive development. This communal aspect

of the ministry will seek to start with any number of participants, no matter how small, and with

positive results compounded by word of mouth, continuously grow. In creating a large family,

colored by a variety of personal experience, this communal gathering facet of the program can

effectively dismantle stigma and isolation while not only providing the physical necessity of

food, but creating a safe and hospitable community that provides an opportunity for ex-convicts

to be heard and understood, and thus supported in their quest for healing.

Communal gatherings are only the start of the healing and assimilation process that the

Church will offer in its response program. The next facet is a series of outreach opportunities in

which the former prisoners can participate. The purpose of these opportunities is to build on the

communal gatherings’ attempts to diminish isolation and rejection and to direct the former

prisoners’ focus, for a time, away from their own challenges and out onto the darkness elsewhere

in the world. The Delancey Street Foundation, an established and effective program for ex-

convicts, provides the opportunity for its participants to complete tasks such as catering events,

helping people move, and transporting senior citizens.45 Similarly, this facet of the Church

program will seek to find avenues for ex-convicts to provide ministry and outreach, primarily in

serving food to the homeless and in performing volunteer physical work.

These outreach efforts will be particularly effective in two ways, the first being that they

will extend the Church ministry beyond the ex-convicts and out into the other needy areas of the

world. By being hospitable and providing services to the broken and hopeless who are ex-

convicts, the Church will directly help the situation of the people in that group. Then, in

providing an outlet for those same people to emulate that hospitality for others, the Church

45 Delgado, 159-161.


executes a program that not only positively affects its direct target, but also shapes that direct

target to positively affect its surrounding world.

In addition, the outreach programs will help the ex-offenders to realize a different skill

set in their arsenal. Schlager writes, “unfortunately, not everyone is able or knows how to

harness the positive attributes they possess.”46 Many ex-convicts have become so accustomed to

the violent and self-interested (and often necessary for survival) system by which prison operates

—in addition to the often-broken circumstances that landed them in prison in the first place—

that it becomes frustrating and seemingly impossible for them to function in a society that does

not operate on those same values. Maruna writes that ex-offenders need a “redemptive script,” a

script that empowers them to escape their bleak past and become functioning members of society

who are able to give back.47 Therefore, in creating an outlet for the broken to focus their energy

on the other broken of the world, this program restructures ex-convicts’ social paradigms. The

program serves to remove the individuals from a place that perpetuates a destructive and isolated

version of success and places them in a situation where they can value their worth not by how

tough they are, but by how much they can give and how much they can love. The program,

furthermore, serves ex-convicts through the aforementioned biblical models and then provides

them an opportunity to embody those models themselves.

While the program will do much to meet ex-convicts’ spiritual needs of healing and

redemption, it will also tackle their practical financial needs. In order to live a healthy, and legal,

life, one must provide for himself financially, and doing so requires a source of income. Modeled

on the way that Homeboy/Homegirl Industries and the Delancey Street Foundation provide job-

46 Schlager, 250.47 Maruna, 87.


training opportunities for ex-convicts, this program will seek to educate and prepare ex-convicts

with the skills, both intellectual and social, to attain and maintain a crime-free career.

The modern world is not an easy place for an ex-convict to thrive financially. Delgado

writes, “there is a pressing need for former prisoners to establish financial stability. This is

difficult to do when there is a general “taxpayer reluctance to spend money on ex-offenders.”48

He further explains that “a lack of employment history combined with limited formal education

significantly alters the probability of ex-offenders gaining meaningful employment with the

potential for advancement.”49 The path to financial success for newly released prisoners is

arduous. Particularly in a society in which even people with top-level education and years of

experience are struggling to find work, these prisoners, often devoid of experience and altogether

unprepared for success in a work environment, have the odds heavily against them. Ex-convicts,

therefore, are in need of an accelerated program that can prepare them not only for the job-search

process, but that can give them the social skills necessary for long-term success in that

professional environment. Much like Homeboy/Homegirl Industries, which helps ex-offenders to

“develop resumes, write cover letters, and perfect the skill of interviewing”,50 and Delancey

Street Foundation, which provides opportunities to learn job skills and develop resumes”,51 this

program will create a six-month curriculum with the end goal of training former prisoners to be

socially capable, competent workers.

This six-month curriculum will have a dual focus covering both job-attaining skills and

social skills. The training will be led by professionals in the Church, who will provide weekly

seminars on steps necessary to getting work: building resumes, dressing appropriately, and

48 Delgado, 145.49 Delgado, 132.50 Delgado, 133.51 Delgado, 146.


having strong interviewing techniques. Furthermore, each session will be focused on a particular

skill and will present simulations in which the students will be able to practice their newly

learned skill. The curriculum will then venture into the social aspect of working. Once they have

found work, these ex-convicts will need to act and perform in a way that will allow them to keep

their jobs. Therefore, the weekly seminars will change their focus to issues including the

management of anger, time, and money. As in the first part of the curriculum, these sessions will

include various simulations in which the students will be presented with a myriad of social

situations wherein they need to choose the best path of action. At the culmination of the six-

month training, if the ex-convicts have shown excellence in all areas and are deemed prepared to

be high-functioning workers, they will receive certificates of merit showing their capabilities and

potential as workers.

Training the ex-convicts to succeed financially only addresses half of the issue, however.

Delgado reveals the general hesitation that employers have to hire ex-convicts: “employers still

fear the legal retribution that would accompany their liability if they hired an ex-offender who

committed a crime at their workplace.”52 This is a result of the stigma that comes with former

criminals, and is something that must be countered. Ex-offenders struggle to find work at both

small and large business, as “small businesses have fewer staff and tend to have more informal

screening processes than companies with large human resources divisions,” creating a greater

potential for discrimination53, and “in midsized to large companies, the increasing availability of

criminal background checks and information is detrimental to an individual’s chance of getting a

job.”54 There is no escaping the fact that employers have an unfortunate, if logical, disposition

toward being reluctant to hire former criminals. The final aspect of the program is, thus, to seek

52 Delgado, 107.53 Delgado, 114.54 Delgado, 106.


out Christian employers and educate them on the value of hiring ex-offenders who have reshaped

their lives, as well as encouraging them to do so as a way of embodying the pertinent biblical

models of the coming kingdom of God and the Year of Jubilee.

While there is an obvious risk in hiring an ex-convict, there is also potential for great

reward and good done. Paul instructs the Romans to “boast in our sufferings, knowing that

suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

and hope does not disappoint us” (Romans 5:3-5). If the Church is able to gather with Christian

employers and explain to them the thorough and extensive process through which the ex-

convicts are being trained, as well as being able to provide definitive evidence—via the

certificates of merit—of their competency, it might be able to reverse the employment trend that

disfavors ex-convicts. Moreover, Schlager explains, “offenders who are empowered will be more

likely to seek change.”55 If local Christian employers are educated about the untapped potential

to do immense good hidden beneath the mangled exterior of ex-convicts, they might be

convinced to provide the empowerment that Schlager describes.

This aspect of the program will strive to remind these Christian employers—in a

nonjudgmental way—about the importance of keeping their faith integrated into their business

decisions. In pointing out to these employers how to make choices that exemplify the coming

kingdom of God, adhering to the culture of generosity and hospitality taught by Christ rather

than the self-interested culture of the world, the Church can refocus some of the employers

toward ex-convicts and seeking to do their part in helping them achieve not only financial

stability, but also positive empowerment.

Therefore, in implementing this four-part program, the Church will actively embody the

models of the coming kingdom of God, servanthood, welcoming community, and the Year of

55 Schlager, 278.


Jubilee. By carrying out the different aspects of the program through those models, the Church

can be a source of the healing, assimilation, and financial stability that ex-convicts so desperately

need.

V. Conclusion

Tackling an issue as vast as the acceptance of ex-convicts back into society is difficult

and requires uncomfortable action by the Church, but it is, nonetheless, a pressing issue that must

be addressed. Fighting to provide a healthy and successful transition for criminals coming out of

prison and into being functioning members of society will take many small steps; it is the

compilation of those small steps that will lead to ultimate progress. The process begins with the

understanding and exemplifying of the biblical models of the coming kingdom of God,

servanthood, welcoming community, and the Year of Jubilee. By functioning within these

models, the Church can point itself toward the stranger, the broken, exemplified in this case by

ex-convicts. These ex-convicts, fresh out of a system that operates on violence and isolation and

is devoid of freedom, struggle to find their footing in a social setting where communal- and self-

sufficiency are staples. Moreover, this social setting is plagued with a disposition to reject those

who are unable to thrive in its particular system. All of these factors contribute to the deep sense

of shame and hopelessness that ex-convicts feel, creating a bleak circumstance that often leads to

recidivism and their further cementing into an identity limited to their criminality. The Church,

however, can actively work to reverse this destructive trend, particularly in the implementation

of the four-faceted program. By providing a sense of community, outreach opportunities, job

training, and education for Christian employers, the Church will create a brighter circumstance

and a more positive script for ex-convicts. Functioning within the aforementioned biblical


models and systematically addressing the most prominent struggles of isolation, lack of social

skills, and lack of financial stability that former offenders have, the Church will take steps to

enabling the healing, complete assimilation back into society, and economic success that is so

direly needed by these individuals. Moreover, by responding to the social issue of accepting ex-

convicts back into society, the Church is gearing itself not only for dealing with other

uncomfortable, often unwanted, figures, but setting a precedent that the other—the “stranger”—

must be sought so that his story can be heard. The Church must seek out these stories that have

not yet been told, because, as Keen writes, “Love asks that much of us.”56

56 Keen, 3.


Works Cited

Boersma, Hans. Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition.

Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2004.

"Characteristics of Inmates." Information Plus Reference Series Fall 2005. Ed. Sandra M. Alters,

et al. Vol. 7: Prisons and Jails: A Deterrent to Crime? Detroit: Gale, 2006. 41-48. Gale

Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.

Cox, Stephen D. The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison. New Haven, Conn:

Yale University Press, 2009.

Delgado, Melvin. Prisoner Reentry at Work: Adding Business to the Mix. Boulder, CO: Lynne

Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2012.

Dulles, Avery. Models of the Church. New York: Bantam Doubleday (Image Books), 1987.

Hauerwas, Stanley, John Berkman, and Michael G. Cartwright. The Hauerwas Reader. Durham,

NC: Duke University Press, 2001.

Heinlein, Sabine. Among Murderers: Life After Prison. Berkeley, Calif: University of California

Press, 2013.

Keen, Craig. After Crucifixion: The Promise of Theology. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. 2013.

Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing,

1990.

Lohfink, Gerhard. Jesus and Community. Trans. By John Galvin. Philadelphia: Fortress Press,

1984.

Maruna, Shadd. Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives. Washington

DC: American Psychological Association, 2001.


Placher, William C., ed. Essentials of Christian Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John

Knox Press, 2003.

Schlager, Melinda. Rethinking the Reentry Paradigm: A Blueprint for Action. Durham, NC:

Carolina Academic Press, 2013.

Sider, Ronald J. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Dallas: World Publishing, 1997.

Snyder, Howard A. Liberating the Church. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press. 1983.

Sutherland, Arthur. I Was a Stranger: A Christian Theology of Hospitality. Nashville: Abingdon

Press, 2006.

Watson, David. I Believe in the Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1978.

Winnick Terri A., Bodkin, Mark. “Anticipated Stigma and Stigma Management Among those to

be Labeled “Ex-Con.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 4. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis Inc.,

2008.

Date post:	31-Mar-2019
Category:	Documents
Upload:	vungoc
View:	214 times
Download:	0 times

wordplayediting.comwordplayediting.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SeniorThesis.docx · Web...

Documents