Incarceration community mum on Pope Francis!

Pope Frances died on Easter Monday, and immediately we started reading headline descriptions of the Pontiff like these from around the world:

CNN:  The ‘outsider’ pope who faced fierce resistance to his reforms 

LA Times: …beloved for his compassion and willingness to shake up scandal-ridden church

The Guardian: …who pushed for social and economic justice, and an urgent response to the climate crisis.  

On the other hand, leadership from what I call “mass incarceration circles,” such as state corrections directors, prison administrators and wardens, and tough-on-crime politicians, have been less effusive in their descriptions and praise. 

I’m going to let specific quotes from a hero to those of us dedicating our lives toward improving the plight of the incarcerated give you a hint as to the subdued response from some quarters. 

ON PRISON LIVING CONDITIONS 

“…it would appear that in many cases practical measures are urgently needed to improve their living conditions…” 

“You cannot talk about paying a debt to society from a jail cell without windows. There is no humane punishment without a horizon.” 

“The deplorable conditions of detention…are often genuinely inhuman and degrading deficiencies. In more than a few cases they represent the arbitrary and unscrupulous exercise of power over people deprived of freedom.” 

ON TREATMENT OF THE INCARCERATED 

“Today torture is not inflicted only as a means of obtaining a specific objective, such as a confession or information — practices which are characteristic of national security doctrine — but is a genuine surplus of pain added to the actual suffering of imprisonment.” 

ON SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 

“There is always that root: the human capacity for cruelty. This is a passion, a real vice! One form of torture is the one sometimes applied through confinement in high security prisons. With the pretext of offering greater security to society or special treatment for certain categories of prisoners, its main characteristic is none other than external isolation. As shown by studies carried out by various human rights organisations, the lack of sensory stimuli, the total impossibility of communication and the lack of contact with other human beings induce mental and physical suffering such as paranoia, anxiety, depression, weight loss, and significantly increase the suicidal tendency.” 

ON JUDGING PRISONERS 

“I think of those who are locked up in prison. Jesus has not forgotten them. By including the act of visiting of those in prison among the works of mercy, he wanted first and foremost to invite us to judge no one. …whatever a detainee may have done, he remains always beloved by God. Who is able to enter the depths of [an inmate’s] conscience to understand what he is experiencing? Who can understand his suffering and remorse? It is too easy to wash our hands, declaring that he has done wrong.” 

ON NEEDED REFORM 

“The aim of a prison sentence should be to educate and prepare people to return eventually to society as law-abiding and contributing citizens” 

“Denying the injustice present in society and creating these spaces to put offenders is easier than offering equal development opportunities to all citizens.” 

AND FINALLY, OUR GOAL AS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 

"The whole church in fidelity to the mission received from Christ is called to show the most vulnerable people the mercy of God. We will be judged on this." 

RIP, dear friend of prisoners!