Making connections outside the bars
There is evidence of a missing link when it comes to supporting prisoners once they have been released from jail.
"For prison ministry in general, the perennial missing piece has been after-care for ex-offenders," says Brian Inkster, executive director of Prison Fellowship of Canada. "For many guys, their only community has been the community of crime. As much as they don't want to re-offend, they want to have friends."
Although it's a loose statistic, Inkster estimates the rate of recidivism, or relapse into crime, is between 60 and 70 per cent. That, he says, "means that prisons simply do not do what they are essentially designed to do, to take a bad situation and turn it around."
Prison Fellowship is one of many organizations looking to change the statistics, and in February launched a pilot program in Edmonton specifically to support ex-offenders.
Network for Life operates with a base of local church volunteers who counsel inmates facing imminent release. Once the person leaves prison, he or she is welcomed into a church to take part in a mentoring program that focuses on spiritual as well as practical needs, such as employment, housing and helping the institutionalized prisoner adapt to the outside world.
Inkster hopes the program will eventually operate across Canada, driven in large part by Christian ex-offenders who in turn become mentors to others still in prison.
Reconnecting to society
"Surrounding somebody with a community of support is definitely the way to make a difference," says Ray Scanlan, an advisor for Alpha Canada's Prison Alpha program. "When a man comes out
relying on his own resources, his opportunity for success is probably very small. If he comes out and half a dozen people are committed to helping him, he stands a much greater chance."
Scanlan leads Prison Alpha at the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton, a program that began four years ago with 15 men and has grown to more than 50. Part of their
mandate is to help the offender reconnect with the community upon release through involvement with a local church.
Shelley Nothnagel volunteers with the program, sharing her testimony with the inmates. She had been in and out of jail since she was 16 and was addicted to alcohol and cocaine. However, upon her 1996 release, she came into contact with the Alpha program at a church through the recommendation of a friend.
She became a Christian and 18 months after her release from prison, found herself back behind the walls, this time telling the inmates about Jesus.
"God, in his mysterious ways, opened the prison doors and I was allowed to go in. It's been an awesome experience. I get to go in and talk to the guys and say 'I know where you've been, because I was once there'," she says.
Prison Alpha, a variant of the regular Alpha program, has grown in Canadian prisons in the last 18 months, says national director Sally Start. At present, about 20 institutions in Canada are using the program, but Start says the goal is to emulate United Kingdom, where the program is in 95 per cent of the prisons.
Skip Lynn knows the importance of caring for ex-offenders. When he walked out of jail 20 years ago after serving a two-year sentence, his church, St. Matthew's Anglican, was there to support him.
Now the Abbotsford, BC, resident works with Prison Fellowship and Alpha, bringing inmates to church and establishing support networks for them. It is important for those in prison to realize they are not the only ones with problems, he says. "There's a lot of hurting people outside as well as behind the walls. When people share these things, it tends to open them up and the [offenders] become support for people on the outside."
Finding solutions
There are no easy roads when it comes to dealing with crime, and restorative justice initiatives have had their share of bumps, such as the highly publicized case of Peter Whitmore. The convicted pedophile was part of a Mennonite Central Committee Ontario Circle of Support and Accountability, when he was re-arrested.
Although such cases cast a shadow on restorative justice programs, the success stories outnumber the bad, says Rod Carter, director of the restorative justice program at Queen's Theological College in Kingston, Ontario.
Whitmore was "the first or second failure of approximately 50 Circles of Support over the last eight years," he says. "The success stories aren't usually told though the high profile failures are."
Restorative justice is not a passing fad, he says, but a real solution to many of the problems facing the criminal justice system. "Initial research is very encouraging," he says. "It indicates recidivism rates fall when a restorative resolution is utilized rather than the traditional system."
But finding people at the grassroots level willing to welcome ex-offenders and practice the principles of restorative justice takes time. "Imprisoned people upset middle class sensibilities," says Carter. "A lot of congregations don't know how to get involved."
While the onus is on the ex-offender to restore the community's trust, "the onus is also on the faith community to be supportive, to pray with these individuals and lend material support," he says.
Supporting former prisoners is essential, says Carter, a pardoned ex-offender himself. "No person is an island, and it's pretty frightening when you get back out there."
Raising awareness
The Church Council on Justice and Corrections is one group committed to raising awareness about some of the alternatives to the traditional criminal justice system. Many people "believe in healing and restorative justice, but often they think they're the lone voice," says spokesman Rick Prashaw.
"It can sound like pie in the sky ideals. How do you hold someone accountable for serious crimes? How do you do something meaningful and yet not give up on someone? It's a real challenge. Sometimes we've lacked imagination and creativity in terms of justice intervention; we're so fixed on jails and punishment as the only game in town."
While people must answer for their actions, restorative justice focuses on accountability rather than punitive measures. And it works, says Carter, as the restorative justice methods gain increasing favour in the Canadian justice system.
For example, he points out, Minister of Justice Anne McLellan supports the initiatives, as does Canada's Solicitor General. The Law Commission of Canada has released a film and discussion paper on the topic, and schools such as Queen's offer restorative
justice training. Police forces, courts of law, faith communities and educators are benefiting from the principles as the rate of recidivism drops.
And, says Brian Inkster, supporting the prisoner is something Christians are called to do by Jesus' own example. "The most compelling thing is that Jesus himself occupies every role that crime creates, whether it's offender, victim or ex-prisoner," he says. "Our God is an ex-con. Jesus chose to number himself among the offenders."
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