Christmas Day 2017 was a wonderful day for the prisoners across the country. They woke up to find a new penal system underneath the Christmas tree.
"Love, everyone," the card was signed. "Love from all the world."
And, if you will pause to learn what was in the new penal system, you will note that love is what it was all about -- that and repentance. It had always been that the prisoners' release date largely depended on the length of the sentence. But now, when the prisoner reached the end of his sentence, he still could not be released -- unless it was judged he had repented.
These days, you had things to learn and programs to go through, and your release date wasn't just a matter of reaching the end of your sentence. It was more of a graduation. Go through the steps of repentance, achieve what was required, master all the things they wanted you to master --
And, you graduated.
But, I neglect to tell you about how love was part of all this. To begin with, no one was hired at the prison unless they appeared to have the skill of loving others. The help-wanted ads might as well as read: "Warm and loving people needed. Must be able to smile as you talk to convicts. Must be willing to show interest in their lives. Must be willing to become their friends."
But, it wasn't just the prison workers. Volunteers were brought in. The whole system depended on such a large of a body of volunteers that you have ever seen. Each prisoner was assigned at least one friend, a person who came in and visited regularly with the prisoner. And, before someone could be approved to be one of these volunteers, they were screened to show they had good capacity to love, care and teach the inmates.
Here was the idea: If the only friends and influences the prisoner had were their fellow prisoners -- if we limited it to just them -- then the prisoners would be sorely lacking in good influences. To change that, it was necessary to bring in good influences. And, whenever possible, those coming in were to be people who would maintain the relationships after prison. So, being a neighbor to the inmate was preferred.
Another thing the new prison system did was to provide family training. The prisoner's family was brought in, and the interaction between the prisoner and the family member was observed and both the prisoner and the family members were taught what they were and were not doing right.
Things like tearing each other down, bullying, and so forth. Things like giving compliments and praising.
Well, I don't have time to tell you everything about the new prison program. But, I think you can see from what I have written that it was a wonderful Christmas present for the prisoners.
No comments:
Post a Comment