Perspectives on Prisons

By Dan Millstein

Why pay any attention to prisons and prisoners? After all, the "residents" screwed up and deserve what ever they get . "I do not need to concern myself with prisoners; I have enough to worry about without wasting my attention on criminals. Lock 'em up and throw away the key as far as I'm concerned." is the popular consensus.
Please let me point out a few other ways of looking at this $50+ billion a year problem. The following are mostly spiritual perspectives based on personal observations made by me working as a volunteer teacher inside prisons for well over a decade. I am not addressing the victim's perspective or societal costs at this time, only asking that we broaden our view to include a perspective that could lead toward more rehabilitation programs:

1. Obviously, people who commit crimes feel separate from the rest of society and are acting out of fear-filled thinking. "I didn't think I could 'make it' any other way." could be their mantra. Prison is separation, by design, and therefore cannot, by its very essence, teach oneness or community.
   
   
2. Criminals are our personal touchstone to our own evolution. That is why we are so fascinated by crime shows, as we can see how smart we are compared to those 'others'. A higher truth is that there are no 'others', we are all one people. Dostoesky said, "We can measure the degree of civilization in a society by entering its prisons."
   
   
3. Many of our ancient and modern day "saints" have spent time in prison, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, the Apostle Paul, Jesus, so prisoners can be compellingly human and even saints, along with being harmful to society and other individuals. One perspective on prisoners does not fit all.
   
   
4. We know in our hearts and through scripture that forgiveness is the way to go, yet we are unforgiving when it comes to some of the most petty of crimes. We do not even let most prisoners vote after they have served their time.
   
   
5. Prisons are, generally, the same now, or worse, than they were 100 years ago. If they were a corporation the shareholders would demand that they strive to become better, more environmentally and success oriented, why not prisons?
   
   
6. Build skills not cells. The way to reduce recidivism is education, yet the prisons only do the barest minimum, and then, only to satisfy the occasional question about what kind of rehabilitation programs are offered to prisoners.
   
   
7. Author Dan Bergner says, "In prison, where criminals have been consigned for both public protection and individual punishment, a cloak of invisibility slowly drops. The criminal ceases to exist for all but their families and their victim's families." Bergner finds this to be disquieting. He adds, "The oblivion we have staked out is immoral. I think we have to get to know the people we have decided to take control of."
   
   
8. Every year 10's of thousands of prisoners renew their souls in prison, usually through their innate human resilience. Prison, for them, has become 'Holy Ground' There is potential for more of this spiritual regeneration if prisons made these types of programs available. Some prisons ban reading material.
   
   
9. Volunteers are discouraged from entering prisons to help or to run self-improvement programs and, in some cases, justifiably so, for their own protection. And, this door could be opened wider so many types of teachers from the community could enter safely. Most prisoners so appreciate volunteers they would never let anything happen to them.
   
   
10. Many guards are provocative in their attitudes towards prisoners as if it is their job to punish and look down upon their charges. Prison is the punishment; we do not send people to prison to inflict additional punishment. Guards must begin and be trained to become 'correctional officers' in the true sense of that title.
    
    
11. Prisons hold on to some of the "darkest energy" on our planet and, since we all live in the same morphic resonance or quantum energy field, doesn't it make sense to raise the energy of prisons to places of healing?
    
    
12. Cosmically, we can look at prisoners as our personal scapegoats. Our own 'sins' are transferred to their heads and they are chased from the village to serve the time and atone for all of us. In this perspective they are our angels. Slightly tarnished angels, but angels none the less. Remember in archery and in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus, to 'sin' is to 'miss the mark.'