The Big Hoose

I visited the Big Hoose this morning. While moving through the grounds accompanied by one of the chaplains, I bumped into a pastor friend who was also accompanied by a chaplain. Small world. What interesting flocks we tend. I marvelled yet again at the difficult work prison chaplains do. I remembered the words of Catherine Rohr at Willow Creek in August. She is a young woman who gave up a career on Wall Street (wise move, that), in order to help prisoners in Texas develop their entrepreneurial skills: she reminded us that many of the biblical heroes of the faith (Moses, David, Paul) were all heavily involved in murder, yet God used them in their repentance. Prisoners are paying the sentence for their crime by being in jail, yet for many that sentence, even on their release, is a lifelong one, for their crimes still haunt them in joblessness, stigma and fear. Why doesn't the church lead the way in really helping prisoners make a new start?