In Rethinking incarceration, Gillard looks into its foundation and examine the channels that caused mass incarceration which were the war on drugs, private prisons, immigration, mental illnesses and school to prison channels (Gilliard, 60-76). Mass incarceration has been widespread in the USA yet resulted in many systemic social injustices. Unfair criminal justice systems have occasioned social injustices. For example, the occurrence of rape in the prisons, tearing apart families causing suffering for children and relatives of inmates, unequal racial outcomes of imprisonment, and bias for minority ethnic groups and slavery were some of the social injustices in prisons. The Church has also contributed to the problem of inequity by taking punitive stands. For example, in the past, the toxic expression of white evangelism that was biased against the black in viewing them as inferior beings to the whites. The black people were punished out of prejudice was an indication of how the Church contributed to mass incarceration. On other occasions, the Church attempted to reform broken systems by doing activism for individual families and communities who faced vengeance from the order at the expense of humanity. These unclear stands for the Church exposed the rot and lack of total goodwill of Church in radically standing for justice.
Gillard calls Christians to be radically compassionate by moving from punishment into a restorative justice framework while reducing re-offense from wrongdoers. Gillard emphasizes the need to fulfill God’s desire for peace, showing that punishment cannot satisfy the demands of justice. Gillard further indicates that biblical truth is found through the refining of relationships and not through isolation and punishment. In addition, he states that incarceration in its current nature cannot co-exist with God’s love (Gillard, 163). The minority who are imprisoned are perceived to be dangerous people and are isolated from the brutal police force. History of mass incarceration in the USA traces back American history of slavery, the mediocre family set-ups, racism biases in law enforcement, and unequal chances for the minority. Gilliard invites the people of Faith to engage in restorative justice.
The Church ought to be involved in prison ministry, the introduction of alternative penal atonement, and activism towards dismantling mass incarceration. The Church has been called to avoid systemic oppression, and human negation in the Bible in Deuteronomy 1:16-17 criminal justice systems are reminded to judge fairly and impartially regardless of wealth, citizenship, or social status of the accused. The Bible provides an affirmation in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 5 hat women and men are created in God’s likeness. In Luke chapter 10, the Bible requires that humans love God and neighbor just as they love themselves, showing the worth of human beings. In Luke chapter 4 verse 18, Jesus announced that the release of the captives was a sign of God’s kingdom, and releasing captives emulates the justice of God’s kingdom. The Bible requires that the Church and Christians act as agents of Jesus’s healing by reaching out to prisoners, returning citizens, and their families. Also, in Isiah 60 and 61, a vision of rebuilding, restoring, and renewing all that is broken in the society presents. The Bible requires that Christians and the justice system work towards ending brokenness that comes with incarceration.
The Church should pray for the prisoner’s .in Mathew 25:36 believers are charged to cloth, visit, and care for the prisoners and have fellowship with them, congress members should address the injustices that come with mass incarceration by putting in place humane approaches to imprisonment and rehabilitation. Such as discretionary parole and adopt measures that support returning citizens to re-enter the society humanely and comfortably (Marshall). The Bible invites us to recognize that imprisonment causes pain, it was in the past an instrument of oppression and not justice, and there needs to be caution in using excessive and normative reliance on imprisonment in dealing with wrongdoing other alternatives should be considered. A moral awakening will work a long way in halting mass incarceration (Gilliard, 186).