It’s easy to keep some cold, hard distance from the reality of prison in America until someone you know and care about lands on the dark side of these stone walls.
Among the most basic unwritten rules for the 2.4 million people in prison in America is one that I am about to violate. The rule of thumb for any prisoner with something good to say about his captors is that he should keep it to himself. I have to make an exception to that rule. In my post, “Entrustment to Divine Mercy for Wounded Warriors,” I wrote of a sometimes frustrating endeavor that has been taking up a lot of my time.
Three years ago, I was challenged to serve on a committee that attempts to negotiate with the prison administration over a wide range of prisoner issues and concerns. I managed to duck this invitation for several years until someone I knew was caught up in an unjust predicament here. My friend received an A-Level Disciplinary Report – the highest level possible short of a new criminal charge. The report listed his offense as being “Out of Place,” meaning that he went somewhere in the prison where he should not have been, and without authorization.
This should have been classified as either an “A, B, or C-Level” offense depending on seriousness, or as a “bad spot” if trivial, but it was written at the highest level possible. The prisoner involved faced sanctions such as 100 hours extra duty (free labor), 100 days loss of access to the commissary and outside recreation, and a one-year termination from his most treasured outlet: woodworking.
My friend was pressured to plead guilty without a hearing under threat of being moved to other housing. The penalties seemed severe. I assumed that this friend must have done something serious to warrant all this, but when he showed me the report, I was stunned. His offense? He was standing in line for medication that he takes daily. When someone asked him a question, he stepped a few feet out of the line to answer it.
So I braved something that I technically had no right to do. I went to the officer who wrote the report and asked him why it was written at the highest level when it should have been a simple “bad spot,”or at most a “C-Level” report. The officer then showed me a list of newly revised disciplinary infractions in which all “out of place” reports – no matter how serious or trivial – are to be treated as “A-Level” offenses.
Then I went to the administrator of the woodworking program here and argued that such a minor infraction should not have a one-size-fits-all penalty such as loss of woodworking for an entire year. He agreed, but said his hands were tied. Then he said, “If you really want to do something about this, join the ICC and argue the point.” So I accepted – reluctantly.
In my first meeting with the prison administration a month later, I argued the case. The Commissioner of the Department of Corrections stated that a revision of all rule infractions had been undertaken “with unforeseen consequences” by someone in his office. I argued that fair notice is considered the basis of due process in all legal systems, and there was no fair notice about this drastic upgrade in rules and sanctions. He agreed, and rescinded the entire revision, restoring the previous version of disciplinary infractions and sanctions.
Recently, the prison administration here signed and ratified a Policy and Procedure Directive defining its intent to work with the Inmate Communications Committee (ICC):
“It is the policy of the NH Department of Corrections to establish and support an Inmate Communications Committee (ICC) consisting of inmate representatives with the support and assistance of assigned DOC staff. The ICC shall advocate for inmate issues and serve as a communications source and a conduit of pertinent information for inmates at DOC facilities in identifying issues and bringing proposals forward to management authorities. All issues and proposals shall be intended to serve the general good and welfare of the inmate population, including security and safety concerns. It is not intended to be used to advocate for individual inmates’ personal issues.” (PPD 7.03)
PRISON AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
I proposed and wrote PPD 7.03 which is now a public document, but no one was more surprised than me when the current prison Warden became its proponent and the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections signed it into local law. So in a way, I made the bed that I now have to sleep in. From the most crowded and unlivable living quarters in this entire prison system, I advocate – along with six others – for everyone’s issues and concerns except my own. I can talk about how unjust and oppressive the current policies regarding housing are, or how difficult it is for someone else to live eight to a cell on a long term basis, but I cannot ever mention my own discomfort.
Still, I commend the administration of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections for having the foresight and sense of justice to include some formal prisoner advocacy among the voices and agendas they are willing to hear. It’s a progressive step, and especially so when most so-called “progressives” in the political arena have abandoned the criminal justice reform and prison reform agendas they once championed. I wrote a little about this before the last election cycle in “Hillary Clinton, Judge Alex Kozinski, & Prisoner 67546.”
Please do not conclude from the above that I have “found my place” or worse, “found my peace” with this environment. I must do everything I can to resist an unjust conviction and sentence imposed on me. Readers who have been paying any attention at all know that my cross of false witness and unjust imprisonment has been heavy.
I do not believe that God has given me this cross because I can bear it, or because He wanted me to rescue other souls here from the eve of destruction. I do not believe that God did this to me at all. It was the work of men – of selfish, greedy, sinful men. What God gave in response was the grace to endure this evil and not be defined by it. If there has arisen from this evil something good for someone else, it is not my doing.
I remain committed to a basic principle proposed by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning. It’s one that I actually heard the prison Warden here repeat in a recent meeting.
“There is one freedom that can never be taken from you: the freedom to choose the person you will be in this, or any, circumstance.”
I am not, therefore, a bitter or broken man, and I have not exchanged evil for evil. That is solely because of the work of grace, and it is a good thing. The alternative to cooperating with that grace is to become selfish, resentful, vindictive. I might fit in better, but I could not “do time” as most prisoners describe prison. Time would do me!
But what about the vast majority of prisoners who have indeed committed crimes against society and come to prison as a just consequence of their action? Midway through my 23rd year in prison as I write this, I have learned a few things about them, about the prisons that keep them, about restorative justice, and about not only what is in their best interest, but in yours as well.
One truth that I have learned is something that I wrote in a recent post: “Beneath every story is another story that brings light to what is on the surface.” This is true in the story of every prisoner I have met. There are evil people in prison. There are some who should never again be entrusted with freedom beyond these stone walls, but they are a small minority. For the vast majority of prisoners I have met, restoring justice to their lives and restoring their freedom is a singular goal. The problem is that there is very little that happens in a one-size-fits-all prison that helps bring that about, and there is a lot in prison that actually works against it.
My recent article for Spero News, “The Shawshank Redemption and Its Real-World Version,” described the challenge of living eight to a cell in an environment characterized by physical, psychological, and spiritual uncertainty and chaos:
“The restoration [of a prisoner] stands as a monument to the great tragedy of what is lost when strained budgets and overcrowding transform prison from a house of restorative justice into a warehouse of nothing more redemptive than mere punishment.”
OBSTACLES AND ALLIES IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
During the last presidential election year in the United States the topic of criminal justice reform came before the public consciousness. In the ebb and flow of political rhetoric, there were some good ideas floated to embrace both criminal justice reform and prison reform. One solid idea was a plan announced by the Department of Justice to cease the use of private “for-profit” prisons to house federal prisoners.
During one of the presidential primary debates, Hillary Clinton declared her opposition to private prisons, stating that the lives and rehabilitation of young offenders “should not depend on someone’s bottom line.” There has not been much that I agree with Mrs. Clinton about, but I agree with that. On the other hand, she did fail to mention that the 1990s Clinton Crime Bill was largely responsible for the explosion of prison populations across the land with no real change in crime rates.
On the heels of Mrs. Clinton’s statement, – (all of entrenched Washington thought she would win, after all) – the Department of Homeland Security also announced that it would review its policy of housing some illegal immigrant detainees in private prisons. Almost instantly, the three largest for-profit prison companies in the United States dropped a total of $2.2 billion in their stock value.
Since the election, however, President Donald Trump reversed course. After stating the Administration’s support for private prisons, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Justice Department’s decision to end their use.
I believe this is unwise, and a misguided effort that I hope our President will reconsider. The bureaucracy of government is an enormous obstacle to restorative justice. The one thing that would make it worse is to trade government bureaucracy for some corporation’s shareholders and profit margin.
This nation has to rethink crime and punishment. Some of the statistics are staggering. The United States imprisons citizens at a rate higher than any nation in the free world and most that are not so free. We have more citizens under age thirty in prison than all nations of the European Union combined. The U.S. has five percent of the world’s population and twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners.
From my own perspective, maybe a good place to start would be to address the sanity behind offering a defendant a one-to-two year sentence to plead guilty, then sentencing him to prison for sixty-seven years for maintaining his innocence. Or the sanity of keeping an 18-year-old defendant in prison for over four decades – long after his rehabilitation is aptly demonstrated.
If you think that prison in and of itself restores an offender, think again. Just a week after I and others were forced to live eight-to-a-cell – a story I described in “Hebrews 13:3: Writing Just This Side Of the Gates of Hell” – I was sitting in the prison dining hall when a younger prisoner sat across from me. He told me that he first came to prison at age 18, and is now back for his 13th parole violation at age 30. He said he has gone “to the most comfortable housing” each time, and “I really like it there.”
God forbid they should make him a little less comfortable. Maybe he would not have come back 13 times! As he regaled us about his 13th return visit, he was oblivious to the fact that I had to dissuade the other three men at my table from punching him.
This guy came here as a lost 18-year-old and was warehoused, and now he is an institutionalized 30-year-old. Taxpayers could have put this kid through Harvard for what they spent to subsidize this human tragedy. Now multiply that by 2.4 million.
I had the great privilege recently of exchanging some ideas with Chandra Bozelko whose eye-opening article, “It Isn’t Offensive to Give Offenders a Second Chance” appeared in The Wall Street Journal (January 9, 2017). She wrote of how our supposedly progressive news media dogged Donald Trump during the past election because someone with a long-ago felony conviction presented him with a bronze eagle award on New Year’s Eve. From this, the liberal news media declared that Trump had been “associating with felons.” Ms. Bozelko wrote,
“The media’s guilt-by-association mind-set would make convicted felons more toxic and untouchable by justifying employers’ refusal to hire us or schools denying us admission.”
Chandra Bozelko, author of Up the River: An Anthology, blogs at prison-diaries.com. What she wrote for The Wall Street Journal is courageous, and worthy of our open-minded attention.
And in a recent cover story for the ever faithful Our Sunday Visitor, “Incentivized Incarceration: For-Profit Prisons,” (OSV April 9-15, 2017) writer Nicholas W. Smith penned an excellent analysis of the subject of prisons and prison reform. OSV has opened a much-needed discussion about America’s private prison industry and its use for both prisoners and immigrant detention. With the help of a friend, I was able to post a comment on that article. It might signal OSV about the importance of this story if you click on the article and read my comment.
Lastly, I thank you for reading this far. “When I was in prison you came to me” (Matthew 25:36). You have performed a Corporal Work of Mercy for which I ask the Lord’s Divine Mercy blessings upon you in abundance.
Now please share this post!
Juan says
Very informative article, Father Gordon, exposing the harsh realities of inadequate and unfair justice administration. I wonder what would it be like if both public and private correctional systems followed a truly Christian code of conduct. Or what if society as a whole were to be run on really Christian principles.
For one thing, the monstrous injustice being dealt to you, Father Gordon, would not be taking place.
On the other hand, there are so many grave injustices being committed nowadays that their list and nature are frightening. Again, true Christianity is incompatible with them.
Do we Christians pray – both in private and in public – for the conversion of everybody involved, first of all of ourselves? Is it not true that so often we just rely on our own smart doing and in pretending to understand it all ?
I keep praying for you, for the conversion of those who might be able to help you and that of all of us.
Juan.
Mary Jean Diemer says
Hi Fr. Gordon!
I am saddened every time I read these posts at what you have to go through there and yet I also am grateful that the others there are made happy by what your being there for them. It is hard to step into the Mind of God as to why this has to be done through false witness but His dearly beloved Son was in the same circumstance. What retribution you are garnering for those that need it! I continue to pray for all of you each and every day. Sending love and blessings! Jeannie
-- says
Is a just manager more likely to be a government employee or a corporate employee? Is the Almighty any less able to work through a private enterprise than a government agency? Is it an exercise in poor judgment that the prison system depends on the marketplace in discharging its mission of rehabilitative justice more than it already does (because, at some point, every bureaucracy is utterly dependent on a free market, somewhere)?
The City of Man, in all its expressions, is inherently flawed, and may I say equally doomed? Yet God is at work.
Carlos Caso-Rosendi says
Dear Fr Gordon,
Many times I had the intention to comment here but I felt I had nothing I could add on the topic because you covered it so well. How could you not cover perfectly something that you are experiencing so unjustly while I can only imagine it – and imagine it very poorly – for a limited time because sooner or later I will finish my comment, wander into the chores of the day … into my own prison of ordinary things. I posted this article of yours in Facebook and read it while working on a book I am writing and the two themes coalesced: earlier I was thinking of San Juan Diego who lived a good half of his life under the demonic Aztec oppression, who knows the terror poor people suffered living in constant danger of being selected for the human sacrifices on the altars of their gods. I thought that in a way you are going through the same experience. Persecution by something so huge as the State or the Church is something that makes us feel very small. The youth of San Juan Diego, a baby in the womb during abortion, your little vital space reduced to not being able to stretch your arms … those are cruel and unusual punishments. So much for our Constitution. Yet you are free because you know. Woe to those who think themselves free because they can go anywhere they please or buy anything they desire but ignore that our planet has become a prison in a little more than the last 100 years. See Fr Gordon, I am “outside” but knowing what is going on in our world makes me understand – in a very limited way – what you are going through. I feel you are a giant caught in a trap by very little men. I see bishops and archbishops laughing at ‘charity’ dinners and I can’t understand for my life what are they laughing about. I see television programs where very Catholic men and women dispense what little wisdom they can muster and I can’t understand their preaching. All is empty and called to silence before true suffering. all the human wisdom and brilliance of the ages pales before one second on the Cross towering in its immensity above the little, vain blades of grass. My prayers are always with you.
Dcn. Dave Norman says
Fr. Gordon, Thanks for another amazing post! Interestingly, Judge Alex Kozinski was interviewed on 60 minutes the other night (Sun April 22, 2017) and I was so taken with his apparent sense of fairness that I wrote him asking him for help in your cause. I’ll send you a copy via mail.
We finished the “33 Days” by the way.
Blessings, my friend.
Dave & Terry
Ryan A. MacDonald says
These glimpses into the reality of the American prison system have been real eye-openers. The US spends $$$ billions on its prisons, and it seems a very poor investment when so many young people come out worse off than they were when they went in. I was shocked at the comment that we could have put that one young man through Harvard for the cost of what we’ve spent just to turn him into an institutionalized man who can no longer function in the free world. This makes me very angry. I’m glad that Barbara brought up the madness of solitary confinement. A few nights ago I watched a replay of PBS Frontline and its installment on solitary confinement. It was the Maine State Maximum Security Prison, and it was something out of the worst horror film one could imagine. People were losing their minds after just a few weeks there. I was conscious all the way through that our own dear friend, Pornchai Moontri, spent seven years in that horror, three and ½ of them in one stretch before being moved to New Hampshire where he became Father MacRae’s cell mate. We have all witnessed the miraculous restoration of someone our world tried to destroy. God bless you Father for opening our eyes.
Ryan A. MacDonald
Steve Stradinger says
Fr. G, I got the impression that your toes have dabbled in unfamiliar waters. This impression stems from your comment about Sen. Clinton’s response to the debate on prison reform with Mr. Trump. Somehow, you connected her comment with a decision of President Bill Clinton somewhere in the Past decade or two. What power did she have then? The First Lady does not make policy for the USA. I continue to pray for all unjust prisoners, especially priests who were swept up in the furor of “presumed guilty”.
Father Gordon J MacRae says
Thank you for this. I did not mean to insinuate that Mrs Clinton was responsible for President Clinton’s Crime Bill, but she has several times apologized for it stating that in hindsight it could have been written differently. We should not confuse power with influence. She did have immense influence in that Administration, and her role in developing health care policy for the nation was an example. I commend her for her stance on private prisons. I also commend you for seeing the injustice in wrongful incarceration. With thanks and blessings, Father Gordon
Carol Hall says
I agree with EVERYTHING Helen says to you! She is so on top of your terrible life style. Like Helen I pray nightly for you. Have been for years. I know God is using you with your 23 yrs. of UNJUSTLY imprisonment. You really have so much more FAITH than me. If I was in your shoes, I would feel ABANDONED by God and wondering why is this happening to me?? God is using you in so many ways to reach out to others and help them deal with their situation.
Your articles in TSW are so informative and an eye opener to us all!!!
GOD BLESS and KEEP YOU SAFE FOR ALL ETERNITY. Still praying for your release from there, I DON’T want you in prison anymore than you do!! Carol in Ohio
Barbara says
I’ve shared your article, Father, and continue to pray for you. I’ve listened to several long-form NPR reports on prisons – for profit and not. The use of solitary to punish prisoners for years, driving them mad in the course of it, is evil. And you, Father, have encountered much evil in your time. I’ve prayed that your priesthood be fruitful, and have seen those prayers answered. I don’t have any words of wisdom, or scriptural quotes. I just want you to know that a woman from Virginia holds you in high regard.
God bless you and your work.
Barbara
Ann Sands says
As Frank commented, “You are a light that shines in the darkness” not only in your prison, but for all of us who read TSW. Thousands of us are praying for you and for your release from prison. I wonder what would have happened to you if you had pleaded guilty and taken the reduced prison sentence. Would you have been “defrocked?” Would you be making such huge difference in so many lives? Would you be happier?
Tom says
Good article.. I agree that prisons for profit are a moral evil and should be abolished. I am happy to report that there are no for-profit prisons in my state and no death penalty…two things good about Maryland’s criminal justice system.
Frank Dias says
Father Gordon you are the light that shines in the darkness. Spent an hour in adoration last night for you and prayed chaplet May God keep you safe.
Sharon says
Thanks for standing up for your fellow prisoners, Fr Gordon!
Father Gordon J. MacRae says
Thank you Sharon. I did not report in the article that the miscreant was Pornchai. He was to be barred from woodworking for an entire year because he was three feet away from the line he was supposed to stand in. Then he was railroaded into a “plea deal.” This sort of thing happens a lot here unless someone steps up. By the way, I saw that great photo of you with Father Jonathan on your FB page. Someone printed it and sent it to me. Wonderful!
With Divine Mercy Blessings,
Father Gordon
Maria Stella says
Father G, my heart breaks at the insanity you write about … the sentencing of you to 67 years in prison…after you refused to plead guilty in order to receive a two year sentence. …
I just read the article you linked to in OSV. I am amazed how even though you are confined to prison, how you manage ‘ to get around’ thanks to your faithful helpers.
God bless and lots of agape love to you and Pornchai-Max.
Helen says
So, Father Gordon, another sad notification of grave injustice in our country’s prisons. You are actually living the Word: “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Mt. 10:27 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” … John 8:32. Do you realize how little ‘we the people’ would know if not for you? I shutter at the thought of the lack of prayers, concerns and, maybe even the injustice turned around, if not for your turning on the Lord’s lamp.
I have so little to say about this horrific condition of our prisons and the injustice towards its inmates. This is a story that needs to be heard by those in power and many conditions reversed. Maybe now that you’ve made this story public to us; the ‘right’ people will see it and act. We can only hope and pray.
God bless and deliver you from the horrible injustice that you’ve had to suffer. You are a courageous man, Fr. Gordon. It is an honor to ‘know’ you. Take care of you. You are the ONLY YOU we have…and please, also, keep up the great work for others.
They need you.
You are ALWAYS in my prayers, in my heart, on my mind.
Helen
Ronald June says
I have shared this post on my Facebook and will read your comment about the LAB article.