Racism and Incarceration
Any engagement with the reality of incarceration in the United States must involve engagement with the reality of racial injustice.
The Problem
“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
The Solution
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.
We must overcome all forms of racism, of intolerance and of the instrumentalization of the human person.
- July 18, 2017. (Tweet from @Pontifex) -
Catholic Resources
Against Racism
The Right Road
A Catholic approach
to prison reform
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of England and Wales
Walking with the Excluded: Conversations for Impact with author Reuben Miller
.
Thrive for Life
The Making of "Superpredators"
The first edition of The Marshall Project’s new video series, examines a toxic media myth that damaged a generation of Black youth.
The Marshall Project
A Place of Redemption
A Christian approach to
Punishment and Prison
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of England and Wales
Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
America Magazine: The Holy Spirit is moving us to act against racism.
Fr. James Martin, SJ
National Catholic Reporter: The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it.
Fr. Bryan Massingale’s Article
America Magazine: Pope Francis on the death of George Floyd: We cannot tolerate racism and claim to defend life
Gerard O’ Connell
Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2018)
USCCB
Brothers and Sisters to Us: United States Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on Racism (1979)
USCCB
Brothers and Sisters All: Pax Christi USA’s 20-year Anti-Racism Initiative
Pax Christi USA
JSRI: Jesuit Social Research Institute’s page on Racism
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Lift Every Voice: A Lenten Journey Towards Racial Justice
Ignatian Solidarity Network
Racism as Soul Sickness: Interview with Bryan Massingale
Bill McCormick, SJ (Ignatian Solidarity Network)
Resources
Against Racism and Incarceration
Colorizing Restorative Justice
Voicing Our Realities
Edited by Edward C. Valandra, Waŋbli Wapȟáha Hokšíla
Foreword by Justice Robert G. Yazzie
Resources for Black Women and Criminal (In)justice: Missing Voices in the U.S. Incarceration Conversation
Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life
Georgetown University
The Little Book of Racial Healing
Coming to the Table for Truth-Telling, Liberation, and Transformation
Written by Thomas Norman DeWolf, Jodie Gedde