D
Deo_Gratias42
Guest
I’m a community corrections service provider. Basically, I enforce compliance with court orders, investigate non-compliance, make referrals to community resources, and supervise offenders not in jail.
I find myself at odds with the diocese’s prison ministry as they seem to have this mentality that unless an offender is a real risk to society, they should not be in prison.
I fully believe in restorative justice; however, I also believe in original sin, free will and the effects of sin. Furthermore, I experience this first hand in my work, as I get people who are not sentenced to traditional jail sentences.
Our criminal justice system is based on the restorative justice model. We have programs set in place to keep offenders out of jail unless there is good reason for it (ie: they’re a risk to society, to themselves, other methods have failed to work, etc). Even those who are sentenced to serve their prison terms on weekends, have the option of spending it in the community under house arrest being monitored by electronic monitoring, and are required to spend their weekends when they’re not at home either doing community service work or rehabilitative programming, whichever their supervisor deems necessary and most appropriate.
The problem is not all offenders come from broken homes, have substance abuse problems, are unemployed, etc. Many of them simply make bad decisions based on how they’re feeling at that second, rather than using prudence and looking at all the consequences. Some don’t even care about the consequences because they don’t outweigh the pleasure they’re going to get by doing what they feel like doing, when it’s the complete opposite of what they should be doing.
The result of this is they end up racking up more charges, usually exponentially simply because they willingly disobey their court orders to do things as simple as report to their supervisor when required, or serve their weekend sentence because they’d rather spend their weekend doing something more fun. Usually how this will happen is they’ll skip out of their weekend sentence, which will result in an arrest warrant being released for them and a new charge. Rather than show up for their next reporting date, they’ll skip out on that because they know they’ll be arrested. So, there’s one charge for failing to appear for their weekend sentence, one for failing to report. That’s two charges for one order. What happens then, when the offender is arrested (which doesn’t take long after) the offender is placed on pre-trial out in the community while waiting to deal with their new charges. That means they’re placed under another court order requiring them to report as required (which will be combined as reporting on the same date as their other order) and to remain within the jurisdiction of the court. The next weekend comes along, they skip out on their weekend sentence again and fail to report again, but get arrested shortly thereafter. Now that’s three new charges (failing to report on their pre-trial order is a separate charge than on their probation order) in addition to the other two charges. Once the pre-trial matter is finished in the court, that’s another charge for failing to keep the peace and be of good behavior. That’s six additional charges right there, and this cycle doesn’t end until the courts and their supervisor gets fed up with them and they get sentenced to a jail term, or by the grace of God they finally get it into their heads that they should quit breaking the law (a rarity I am told).
So a simple court order that is less than 2 months long, assuming they do what they’re supposed to, can easily turn into a 2-3+ year sentence, especially if they’re not put in jail and have some of their free will taken away from them. I usually don’t breach on the first offense and will give a warning, but that usually doesn’t do anything. Unless the judge puts a condition on the order that they must complete any programming, treatment, or counseling as requested by their supervisor, we can’t make them do anything. It’s entirely up to them to choose. A lot of offenders are happy with their lifestyle. They like working more than 40 hours a week, getting drunk on the weekends, not going back to school, not bettering themselves. They simply do not care. Instant gratification is their motto.
Unfortunately, my diocese’s prison ministry doesn’t get this reality. Unfortunately word spreads like a wild fire in our parish about the kind of work I do, and I get the parish members who are part of the ministry telling me how to do my job, and that I’m wrong about these offenders, and that they’re really misunderstood people, etc. No, many of them aren’t. I am required by law and policy before any of these offenders are sentenced and even after they’re sentenced to remain in contact with their family members, friends, acquaintances, employers, co-workers, educators, etc to determine their background, any mental health/addiction problems, etc, and prepare a report to use in sentencing by the judge, and after to ensure they’re abiding by their conditions, and if there are any new risks that need to be addressed. There’s a lot of due diligence that’s involved in sentencing and carrying out sentences. We don’t just throw them in jail, but for some, that really is the best place for them simply because they have such a poor attitude and response towards supervision and the criminal justice system.
So, what does the prison ministry suggest we do with these people? Remove all consequences of non-compliance, and not hold offender accountable for their actions? Let them live as they see fit? Give them everything they want and not make them do any work for it?
I find myself at odds with the diocese’s prison ministry as they seem to have this mentality that unless an offender is a real risk to society, they should not be in prison.
I fully believe in restorative justice; however, I also believe in original sin, free will and the effects of sin. Furthermore, I experience this first hand in my work, as I get people who are not sentenced to traditional jail sentences.
Our criminal justice system is based on the restorative justice model. We have programs set in place to keep offenders out of jail unless there is good reason for it (ie: they’re a risk to society, to themselves, other methods have failed to work, etc). Even those who are sentenced to serve their prison terms on weekends, have the option of spending it in the community under house arrest being monitored by electronic monitoring, and are required to spend their weekends when they’re not at home either doing community service work or rehabilitative programming, whichever their supervisor deems necessary and most appropriate.
The problem is not all offenders come from broken homes, have substance abuse problems, are unemployed, etc. Many of them simply make bad decisions based on how they’re feeling at that second, rather than using prudence and looking at all the consequences. Some don’t even care about the consequences because they don’t outweigh the pleasure they’re going to get by doing what they feel like doing, when it’s the complete opposite of what they should be doing.
The result of this is they end up racking up more charges, usually exponentially simply because they willingly disobey their court orders to do things as simple as report to their supervisor when required, or serve their weekend sentence because they’d rather spend their weekend doing something more fun. Usually how this will happen is they’ll skip out of their weekend sentence, which will result in an arrest warrant being released for them and a new charge. Rather than show up for their next reporting date, they’ll skip out on that because they know they’ll be arrested. So, there’s one charge for failing to appear for their weekend sentence, one for failing to report. That’s two charges for one order. What happens then, when the offender is arrested (which doesn’t take long after) the offender is placed on pre-trial out in the community while waiting to deal with their new charges. That means they’re placed under another court order requiring them to report as required (which will be combined as reporting on the same date as their other order) and to remain within the jurisdiction of the court. The next weekend comes along, they skip out on their weekend sentence again and fail to report again, but get arrested shortly thereafter. Now that’s three new charges (failing to report on their pre-trial order is a separate charge than on their probation order) in addition to the other two charges. Once the pre-trial matter is finished in the court, that’s another charge for failing to keep the peace and be of good behavior. That’s six additional charges right there, and this cycle doesn’t end until the courts and their supervisor gets fed up with them and they get sentenced to a jail term, or by the grace of God they finally get it into their heads that they should quit breaking the law (a rarity I am told).
So a simple court order that is less than 2 months long, assuming they do what they’re supposed to, can easily turn into a 2-3+ year sentence, especially if they’re not put in jail and have some of their free will taken away from them. I usually don’t breach on the first offense and will give a warning, but that usually doesn’t do anything. Unless the judge puts a condition on the order that they must complete any programming, treatment, or counseling as requested by their supervisor, we can’t make them do anything. It’s entirely up to them to choose. A lot of offenders are happy with their lifestyle. They like working more than 40 hours a week, getting drunk on the weekends, not going back to school, not bettering themselves. They simply do not care. Instant gratification is their motto.
Unfortunately, my diocese’s prison ministry doesn’t get this reality. Unfortunately word spreads like a wild fire in our parish about the kind of work I do, and I get the parish members who are part of the ministry telling me how to do my job, and that I’m wrong about these offenders, and that they’re really misunderstood people, etc. No, many of them aren’t. I am required by law and policy before any of these offenders are sentenced and even after they’re sentenced to remain in contact with their family members, friends, acquaintances, employers, co-workers, educators, etc to determine their background, any mental health/addiction problems, etc, and prepare a report to use in sentencing by the judge, and after to ensure they’re abiding by their conditions, and if there are any new risks that need to be addressed. There’s a lot of due diligence that’s involved in sentencing and carrying out sentences. We don’t just throw them in jail, but for some, that really is the best place for them simply because they have such a poor attitude and response towards supervision and the criminal justice system.
So, what does the prison ministry suggest we do with these people? Remove all consequences of non-compliance, and not hold offender accountable for their actions? Let them live as they see fit? Give them everything they want and not make them do any work for it?
