FaithBeto
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FaithBeto
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Why
should you care?
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Why should you care? God has asked you to care. The primary reason to care if you're a Christian is because we are told to in an unambiguous message in Matthew (Matt: 25:31-46)
I
was talking with a friend the other day about why so many ex-offenders
end up back in prison. I said “Let's face it, there
isn’t a lot of chance for someone getting out of prison. They can't really
compete in the marketplace for a job. We need to find a way to help
these guys level the playing field.”
My friend looked at me, surprised at my naiveté, and said, “It’s not a question of a level-playing field. For most of these guys there never was a playing field.” Think about your life. I'm sure you've had your share of successes and disappointments. You've done some things you've been proud of and you've done some things that... well... things you would change if you could... things that maybe you're not so proud of. But over all, even with the many temptations to take the easy way out, you've managed to stay on the straight road instead of the crooked one. Why was this? Maybe your parents instilled better values into your upbringing than you gave them credit for. Perhaps that summer at bible camp really made some kind of impact besides wondering what the girls on the other side of the lake were doing. Perhaps you had a great teacher or coach that inspired you at the right time in your life. Or maybe you just didn't get caught when you were driving around with your friends and behaving like a juvenile delinquent. Now
imagine your life with a few twists. Take away the adults in your life
that made an impact. Imagine the emptiness either because they
didn’t care, had too many problems of their own to be functional
adults, or because they were absent from your life because it took all
they could do to just to keep a roof over your head and food on the
table.
Think about a childhood where instead of being able to imagine yourself being able to do anything when you grow up, you didn’t really expect to live past your 20’s. Imagine drugs being not only available, but pervasive, an ever constant siren song of a few hours of escape from a seemingly hopeless situation.
If it’s difficult for successful two parent families with financial resources, good schools, hours of extra-curriculum activities, and regular church attendance to keep their kids off drugs, what must it be like for families in neighborhoods of extreme poverty? Imagine
the only successful role models you see being superstar athletes or
entertainers with skills you know you have no chance of matching. So
you look around and see the only “successful” people that
you have a chance of emulating being drug-dealers and pimps.
Still, I
don't know about you, but if I’m honest with myself, I’m not
sure I would have made it. For me personally, I know how lucky
I’ve been to have loving people in my life that guided me with a
firm hand when I needed it and a hug and a shoulder to lean on when I
was at the end of my rope. I know the story of some of these boys
and men at Beto, the environments they lived through. Fair or not, for
many, their outcomes are just too predictable given the circumstances.
There are times when I’m startled by the realization of truth of
the old saying, “there but for the grace of God go I.”
Yet for some of these men, as hard as it will be for them when they get out, after working through the program, gaining some successful strategies for coping with life’s hardships, and having a church community to belong to, it will be the first real chance they’ve ever had. The cost are high Another reason to care frankly is just plain self-serving practicality for all of us.
It cost
to fix the problem of crime. Building more prisons has been the recent
answer to the crime problem but with the recidivism rate so high is
this really the right answer?
Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994:
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics - Criminal Offenders Statistics - Recidivism http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#recidivism
Yes!
Christian Prison Ministries helps. It's been proven that
recidivism rates drop dramaticly for inmates that complete a
faith-based program. But CPM needs your help to help others. See How you can Help?
Criticisms
There seem to be a lot of controversy about the results of faith-based programs in prisons. I’ve read that they don’t work. Yes, there is a lot of controversy. Most of the critics have a problem with the CPM because of separation of Church and State concerns (See What is CPM? for our answer to this concern). The reported invalid or even negative results of the recidivism rates is based on some critics view that the incredible results are not accurate because it only counts the people that completed the program and does not count the recidivism rates of the inmates that dropped out of the program. This is a ridiculous argument. Imagine if Harvard or MIT was said to produce lawyers that can’t pass the bar and engineers that have weak advanced math skills because you have to include the students that dropped out in the results to judge those programs. Well, why don’t they complete the program? They’re in prison, can’t you force them? Most of the inmates that volunteer to come to the program are scamming the system at first. They come because it breaks up the monotony of their routine or they think it will earn then some easier job assignment. And that’s okay, many of us first came to church for ulterior motives. If it was when we were young, maybe it was to play on the baseball team with our friends. When we were older perhaps it was because a pretty girl we wanted to kiss asked to come to church with her and her family. Maybe for some of us it was because we were lost after losing a loved one and we stumbled into a grief or divorce workshop. The reason doesn’t matter, the point is that somewhere in that “other” reason we found a love received and a new purpose to our lives. Some will come and reject the gift because they are not ready. We can’t force anyone to have a changed heart. That is up to God and them. The famous picture is Jesus knocking at your heart’s door, not kicking it in. So are you only counting people that become Christian? The program includes a great many practical secular skills and coping mechanism that will help anyone coming out of prison. Many people will come though the program and never become a Christian. They will keep their religion that gives them comfort or not even have a religious belief system and again that is okay. It is fine with us. We can work and feel successful just by the effort of trying to help another human being. But the program requires a change in methods and attitudes about dealing with society and respecting the rights of others. There is some hard soul searching for these men about what brought them to prison and what will bring them back if parts of their lives and reactions remain the same as when they came in. Some are not ready for that task. Some are ready but need a great deal of help to change decades of old failed patterns. Those are the ones that complete the program. |
