prison reform Archives

Concern for inmates, prison reform is obligatory act of mercy, pope says

Catholic News Service, Vatican
Nov 8, 2019

Visiting the imprisoned is an act of mercy that has implications for all Christians and not just those involved in prison ministry, Pope Francis said.

Rikers Island prison ‘has got to go,’ says New York cardinal

Church in the US
Sep 20, 2019

New York’s Cardinal Dolan joined with city religious leaders to call for the closing of one of the nation’s most notorious prisons.

Life without parole is not a solution to crime, pope says

Catholic News Service, Vatican
Sep 16, 2019

Sentencing someone to life in prison without the possibility of parole is “not the solution to problems, but a problem to solve,” Pope Francis told Italian prison guards, prison chaplains and officials from the Ministry of Justice.

New York religious leaders endorse bill to end solitary confinement

Catholic News Service, Church in the US
May 14, 2019

Solitary confinement is in widespread use in prisons across the United States and, in New York state alone, more than 3,000 inmates are isolated in 6-by-10 cells for over 23 hours a day.

People of faith seen as key to creating more humane correctional system

Catholic News Service, Church in the US
Apr 2, 2019

Prisons should be places where punishment is the absence of freedom and community, but where “everything else models life on the outside to every degree possible” and prisoners are treated with dignity, according to the director of the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Bishop praises UK government for pledge to end ‘very short’ prison sentences

Church in UK and Ireland
Jan 15, 2019

A proposal to end all custodial prison sentences of less than six months in England and Wales has been called “the right thing to do” by the Catholic bishop in charge of prison policy for the Church in England and Wales.