Full prisons, empty hearts

The Washington Post reported yesterday on a new federal study which reveals that more than 1 in 100 Americans are incarcerated, the highest percentage in U.S. history, and greater than that of countries like China. Faced with the rising costs of keeping more and more people in prison, states are considering experiments with alternative sentences for non-violent offenders.

My grandfather was a Gideon, and used to take Bibles to the local prison, where he visited with the inmates. I never went with him. I wondered why he did it, why he had such concern for them. The only people I knew about who'd gone to prison belonged there. They were grown-up versions of the bullies I had to face in grade school. I didn't think about why they were there, any more than I thought about why bullies picked on little kids like me. I only knew that I wished more than once that our school had a prison, too.

I wonder if anyone in an official capacity, amidst all the criminological studies examining incarceration rates, and recidivism, and cost-effectiveness of alternative strategies, will ask why so many young men -- for these are largely the population we are talking about -- are committing crimes. Think about it: we live in one of the most prosperous nations on earth, such that even our poor have, except in the most extreme cases, a standard of living well above that of a substantial portion of the world's population. We have enormous liberty, as well. What's more, women are more sexually available now than at any other time in history. The present-day U.S. should be a young heathen's nirvana.

But still there is this great ache, or some despair, or some deep need, that drives young men to steal, and attack, and rape, and murder. It drives them to poison their own bodies. What is it?

I hope you didn't read this far for an answer, because I haven't a definitive one. I do recall Charles Colson telling a story about providing prisoners in his ministry with cards and stamps before Mother's Day, so that those who wanted to could send their mothers a small token of their affection. The response, he said, was overwhelming -- so much so that when Father's Day approached, he decided to make the same offer. That second time, however, there were few takers. These broken men -- many of them ruthless criminals -- jumped at the chance to send a token of love to their mothers. But they had nothing, most of them, to say to their fathers.

Do you think there's a connection between that sad reality, and the rising prison population? And if so, what can be done? More specifically, because we can likely count on governments to avoid this hot potato the way presidential candidates avoid direct statements, what can churches do?