May 20, 2015
Page 7
O PINION
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People of Faith Must Do More Than Pray
Our moral urgency to reform criminal justice
B ARBARA T. B AYLOR
When someone I
know shares their per-
sonal troubles with me,
I must confess that at
times I have responded
“I’ll be praying for you
and your family.” You
have probably heard
this trite statement many times,
perhaps you have used it. We
realize that this catchphrase is
no excuse for inaction.
Although seemingly without
compassion, it is our sincere
desire to respond in love, par-
ticularly when we are not sure
what to do. The incarceration
BY
of
o a loved one or a
family
member is
f
an
a issue that chal-
lenges
our response.
le
There
is often si-
T
lence
in our church-
le
es
e when a family
member
gets the
m
courage to speak up
about their situation. We may
listen to their stories but our
inaction creates a feeling of
abandonment.
The United Church of Christ,
Justice and Witness Ministries
held an event Where Do We
Go from Here? - A Faith Call
to End Mass Incarceration.
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local churches on the issues
of mass incarceration. It chal-
lenged participants to action
and advocacy on the shameful
conditions in the criminal jus-
tice system.
The United States is the
world’s leader in incarceration
with 2.3 million people cur-
rently in the nation’s prisons or
jails. While the U. S. compris-
es 5 percent of the total global
population, it alone accounts
for 25 percent of the world’s
prison population.
According to the Sentencing
Project, more than 60 percent
of the people in prison are now
racial and ethnic minorities. Af-
rican Americans are incarcerat-
ed at nearly six times the rate
of whites, constituting nearly 1
million of the 2.3 million per-
sons. These few startling facts
indicate why “The Church in
America cannot remain silent.”
The church must move be-
yond its quest for racial, po-
litical, and ideological secu-
rities to advocate for justice,
equality, and fair treatment in
the American criminal justice
system.
While there is not yet uni-
form agreement about the
causes of mass incarceration
or the measures that are needed
to restore our broken criminal
justice system, both Houses of
Congress are working together.
There is bipartisan agreement
on sentencing reform bills such
as the Smarter Sentencing Act
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sentencing.
The moral urgency of crim-
inal justice reform is crystal
clear. We are called to not only
“pray” for those directly af-
fected, but we are also called
to “act.”
Barbara T. Baylor is a pol-
icy advocate for health and
wholeness issues for the United
Church of Christ’s Justice and
Witness Ministries.
Never-Ending Cycle of Debt, Poverty and Jail
A predatory
system of
policing
BY
M ARIAN W RIGHT E DELMAN
‘Held
cap-
tive” was how
one 13-year-old
described the
feeling of grow-
ing up poor in
our
wealthy
nation. For more and more
Americans living in poverty,
this feeling isn’t just a meta-
phor.
A recent Department of
Justice report on police and
court practices in Ferguson,
Mo. put a much needed spot-
light on how a predatory sys-
tem of enforcement of minor
misdemeanors and compound-
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people in a never-ending cycle
of debt, poverty, and jail. This
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minor infractions like failing
to show proof of insurance
and letting grass and weeds in
a yard get too high.
In one case a woman who
parked her car illegally in
2007 and couldn’t pay the
initial $151 fee has since
been arrested twice, spent six
days in jail, paid $550 to a
city court, and as of 2014 still
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all as a result of the unpaid
parking ticket.
The report found that each
year Ferguson set targets for
the police and courts to gen-
erate more and more money
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Ferguson isn’t alone. The
criminalization of poverty is
a growing trend in states and
localities across the country.
The investigation came af-
ter the killing of unarmed
18-year-old Michael Brown by
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the practice of criminalizing
poverty made headlines again
after Walter Scott was killed
in North Charleston, S.C. Scott
was shot in the back by police
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4 as he ran away after being
pulled over for a broken tail-
light.
Scott had already served
time in jail for falling behind
on child support, and on the
day he was stopped there was
a warrant out for his arrest for
falling behind again. His fam-
ily believes his fear of going
back to jail caused him to run
from the broken taillight stop.
His brother told The New York
Times that Walter Scott already
felt trapped: “Every job he has
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because he went to jail because
he was locked up for child sup-
port,” said Rodney Scott.
A 2009 review of county
jails in South Carolina found
that 1 in 8 inmates was behind
bars for failure to pay child
support.
The United States legally
ended the practice of debtor’s
prisons in 1833, and the Su-
preme Court ruled in Bearden
v. Georgia (1983) that it is
unconstitutional to imprison
those who can’t afford to pay
their debt or restitution in crim-
inal cases, unless the act of not
paying debt or restitution is
“willful.”
But poor people are being
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and fees for misdemeanors and
winding up in illegal debtors’
prisons when they can’t pay—
and in some cases, then being
charged additional fees for
court and jail costs. A recent in-
vestigation by National Public
Radio, the New York Universi-
ty Brennan Center for Justice,
and the National Center for
State Courts cited a study esti-
mating between 80-85 percent
of inmates now leave prison
owing debt for court-imposed
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fees.
In some jurisdictions de-
fendants are charged for their
room and board during lockup,
probation and parole supervi-
sion, drug and alcohol abuse
treatment, DNA samples, and
even their constitutional right
to a public defender. When
poor people can’t pay those
fees either, the cycle of debt
and jail time continues.
Federal law also prohibits
people in breach of probation
from receiving a range of ben-
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sistance for Needy Families
(TANF), food stamps, and Sup-
plemental Security Income—
once again, exacerbating the
cycle of poverty, probation,
and prison.
And state and local policies
establish barriers that make it
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have served any time in prison,
including those there because
they were poor, to re-integrate
into society. According to a
study conducted by the Ameri-
can Bar Association’s Criminal
Justice Section, there are more
than 38,000 documented stat-
utes nationwide creating col-
lateral consequences for peo-
ple with criminal convictions
including barriers to housing,
employment, voting, and many
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By denying these citizens
access to basic services they
need to survive, our policies
needlessly increase the risk
of recidivism and continue to
leave people truly trapped—
and when we extend the cycle
of poverty by criminalizing
poor people, there are only a
few winners and many, many
losers.
Marian Wright Edelman is
President of the Children’s De-
fense Fund.
The Law Offices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd
Portland, Oregon
Portland:
(503) 244-2080
Hillsoboro:
(503) 244-2081
Facsimile:
(503) 244-2084
Email:
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com