Any engagement with the reality of incarceration in the United States must involve engagement with the reality of racial injustice.
“Sentencing policies, implicit racial bias, and socioeconomic inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system. Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population.
Overall, African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences. Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Hispanic men are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as non-Hispanic white men.”
From The Sentencing Project – Criminal Justice Facts
Racism is not only a sin of individuals who unjustly discriminate or fail to reflect about their own bias. Racism is also a sin woven into and perpetuated by institutions and structures to which we are all connected. To resist racism requires action by all to unmask and recreate these structures.
Any engagement with the reality of incarceration in the United States must involve engagement with the reality of racial injustice.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of England and Wales
Thrive for Life
The Marshall Project
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of England and Wales
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Fr. James Martin, SJ
Fr. Bryan Massingale’s Article
Gerard O’ Connell
USCCB
USCCB
Pax Christi USA
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Ignatian Solidarity Network
Bill McCormick, SJ (Ignatian Solidarity Network)
Edited by Edward C. Valandra, Waŋbli Wapȟáha Hokšíla
Foreword by Justice Robert G. Yazzie
Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life
Georgetown University
Written by Thomas Norman DeWolf, Jodie Gedde
2023 Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition. All Rights Reserved.