Commentary: Call to provide more programs that welcome ex-convicts back into society

February 19, 2004

MICHELE NORRIS, host: It's estimated that 640,000 people will be realized from prison in the US this year. Many social service agencies provide programs for released prisoners for things like job training, housing and substance abuse counseling. But commentator Robert Franklin says that more can and is being done for released prisoners.

ROBERT FRANKLIN: `Re-entry' is the term of art we now use to describe the journey from prison back to the neighborhood. Increasingly, faith communities are entering the re-entry game. They bring values and practices that could complement secular-oriented strategies. Those values include forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation, all core values in the world's major religious traditions.

In Atlanta, Muslim Chaplain A.J. Sabree works with inmates in the Georgia State Prison System. After years of providing conventional prison ministry services such as worship and counseling, he decided to go on the offensive. He realized the need for a bridge between the prison and the local mosque. That bridge took the form of a ministry he designed called religious aftercare.

Based in the local masjid, the ministry convenes small groups of ex-offenders to discuss their goals, challenges and social influences. Participants receive a mentor and are welcomed by the entire mosque. Sabree notes that as the peer group goes, so go most ex-offenders. They urgently need a caring and supportive community to help reinforce the values and behavior associated with a more responsible life. That's where the mosque steps in to offer a forgiving embrace and firm moral guidance to prodigal sons and daughters.

On Chicago 's West Side, the Bethel Lutheran Church is preaching liberty to former captives. Mary Nelson, the pastor's sister, says that ex-offenders need more than social work and good services. They need to know that it is possible to lay down the heavy burden of guilt for past wrongdoing. They need to know that they can re-enter the community as responsible, fully redeemed members of civil society. And they need to discover and explore ways to experience reconciliation with those who have been victims of their past crimes.

To achieve this, Bethel has developed a Welcome Home initiative. It helps newly released offenders adjust to their status as free citizens by ensuring that they work and enjoy decent housing. The church hosts ceremonies and social occasions where ex-offenders experience genuine hospitality and not simply social service delivery.

These are the unique gifts and strengths that faith communities bring to re-entry. Forgiveness is a gift that victims may bestow upon offenders. Redemption is the state of being embraced by a firm, but supportive community. Reconciliation is the courageous and painstaking process of trying to establish respectful relationships between parties that have been at odds in the past.

Congregations like the Atlanta Masjid and Bethel Lutheran illustrate the value-added involvement of America's faith communities in supporting the ex-offenders' journey home. I hope that more congregations will harvest the precious resources that lay at the core of their sacred texts. Only then will ex-offenders hear the hopeful, life-changing words emanating from communities across the nation, `You are forgiven. You are accepted. Welcome home.'

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NORRIS: Robert Franklin is a professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

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