California bishops report proposes
prison reforms
By JOYCE CARR
Special to the National Catholic Reporter San Diego
In March, a 16-year-old boy hanged himself in a Los Angeles
juvenile detention facility after carving his grandmothers name in his
arm.
Last year on Mothers Day, a 13-year-old Los Angeles girl
visited her incarcerated mother for the first time in eight years. The reason
for the delay: Her guardian couldnt afford transportation to the distant
Chowchilla prison.
In another case, Theresa Cruz has been separated for nearly a
decade from her four children, though the staff at the Corona womens
prison in California has twice recommended her release. Her crime? After a
former abusive partner continued to stalk her, she confided in a male friend
who shot the abuser in the leg. Though the bullet left no permanent injury,
Cruz is serving seven years to life for conspiracy to commit murder.
The California Catholic Conference of Bishops hopes to reduce the
number of such incidents through its stepped-up advocacy for a more just penal
system. The conference has launched an ecumenical project to improve the
churchs role in ministering to prisoners, victims and their families and
to develop a partnership with the California Department of Corrections.
In the past two years, delegations of Catholic, Lutheran and
Quaker leaders have toured 13 state prisons. The states system houses an
estimated 160,000 inmates in 33 institutions and 38 camps.
Led by Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, the
conferences liaison for prison ministry, the delegates met with each
detention facilitys staff and heard inmates grievances.
The conference compiled delegates observations into a report
that was divided into recommendations for the church and for the California
State Department of Corrections. The church, it said, needs to provide more
Catholic chaplains, outreach to prisoners families and victims,
resettlement programs for released convicts, assistance to undocumented
immigrants detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, public
education on the death penalty, programs for inmates in solitary confinement,
and programs to combat racism.
In its recommendations to the Department of Corrections, the
report called for protection of inmates religious freedom, policies that
support inmates relationships with their families, educational and
addiction recovery programs, and attention to womens health issues. It
decried such practices as indeterminate sentences and solitary confinement,
denial of parole, lack of representation of Californias diverse
population on the parole board, and abuses by guards.
In a written response to the report, Steven Cambra, Jr., acting
director of the California Corrections Department, defended some policies but
asked for a continued dialogue with bishops. Conference executive
director Ned Dolejsi said he welcomed such a dialogue and hoped it would lead
to better conditions for prisoners and eventually in fewer parolees returning
to crime.
The delegations report urged the corrections department to
give inmates more flexible work schedules, enabling them to attend worship
services. Worship services lead to many conversions, according to a parolee
from the California State Prison in Sacramento, who calls himself a
recovering career criminal, drug addict and racist. A former clerk
for prison chaplain Deacon Dennis Merino, he told NCR that Catholic
services, coupled with the chaplains compassion, nonjudgmental
attitude and unconditional love
saved my life. Dennis helped me see the
good in myself.
Merino described duties that range from locating halfway houses
for parolees to conducting support groups and memorial services for
prisoners relatives. My job is like emptying the ocean with a
cup, he said.
In some institutions, chaplains serve up to 7,000 inmates due to
an inadequate budget for chaplaincy, Dolejsi said. Further, lockdowns for
violent behavior keep inmates in their cells and thwart chaplains efforts
to hold religious services, and guards in some security units forbid prisoners
to have direct contact with others, preventing them from receiving the
Eucharist.
In addition to addressing prisoners spiritual needs, the
conference report requested that prisoners who meet state standards be granted
parole. A policy set by the governor-appointed Board of Prison Terms denies
parole to those serving term-to-life sentences.
The conference also asked the corrections department to reinstate
extended family visits to lifers and provide affordable transportation for
families to womens prisons -- changes it believes will reduce prison
violence and strengthen family relationships, motivating inmates toward
rehabilitation.
In addition, the report requested that more physicians be hired
for womens health care. In response, Cambra detailed policies designed to
deliver health care
consistent with community standards.
Delegates question these standards, noting the deaths of 17
Chowchilla inmates last year. The deaths prompted a state senator to hold
hearings into allegations of medical neglect. One case involved a 39-year-old
woman with cancer, whose chemotherapy was repeatedly postponed. Later, drugs
were mistakenly injected into her shoulder, causing an abscess requiring
surgery and a lengthy recovery. By this time, her cancer had become
terminal.
In Security Housing Units, prisoners mental health problems
alarmed delegates. They observed that some inmates in long-term isolation had
become disoriented and unable to communicate. Dolejsi, though acknowledging
that isolation is sometimes necessary, objects to the large number of prisoners
sentenced to security housing for indeterminate periods. The report asks that
the practice be revised or revoked.
Cambra defended the policy. He said prisoners are sent to these
solitary confinement units because they represent a threat to other inmates or
to institutional security, or because they jeopardize internal investigations.
Cambra said inmates in isolation are routinely seen by medical
staff.
The conference views its dialogue with the corrections department
as ongoing, but can point to some early successes. These successes include
filling 11 vacancies for Catholic chaplains and developing a job description
and screening procedures for hiring them.
Delegates tour of the California Institution for Women in
Corona in May led to physical improvements there: new window screens and
shelves and refurbished beds in the 116-cell Reception Center and a $20,000
awning outside the dining room where inmates line up for meals. The overhang
was donated by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
Noting the state prisons recidivism rate exceeding 60
percent, the conference is also addressing the needs of released prisoners by
providing dioceses with guidelines for resettling inmates. The majority
will be back on the streets between two and four years, Dolejsi said. The
guidelines include suggestions to assess prisoners needs before release;
identify local resources for housing, jobs and social services; and enlist
mentoring and support from parishes.
Society demonizes people who have committed crimes,
Zavala said, and voters elect politicians who are tough on criminals. Most
Catholics have an out-of-sight-out-of-mind attitude toward inmates. They
need to know the pain of prisoners families sitting next to them in the
pews. Location of prisons in remote areas makes it hard to recruit
volunteers and priests, he said.
Dolejsi also noted the lack of funding for prerelease programs,
including counseling and job training, during inmates last six months of
confinement.
Zavala envisions a collaborative effort among diocesan offices,
parishes, and the Catholic conference. The conference report calls on various
diocesan offices to bring their programs to prisoners family members,
develop correspondence courses for inmates in isolation, and promote
restorative justice legislation in which victims voice their needs and
offenders work to repair the harm they have caused to victims and the
community.
Prisoners know they have committed terrible crimes,
Zavala said. But they are part of the Body of Christ. We need to be
present to them.
The full text of the delegations report can be found on
the California Catholic Conferences Web site at
www.cacatholic.org/ministry2prisons.html
National Catholic Reporter, July 13,
2001
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