Criminal Justice at a Crossroads:

Why this series now?

I will give them a single heart and I will put a new spirit in them.  I will remove
the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh instead. 
(Ezekiel,11:19)
As Christians we are called to act from “hearts of flesh” – founded on openness,
compassion and mercy, not from “hearts of stone” – motivated by hurt, anger or
fear.  Yet what does this mean when it comes to dealing with those who have been
afflicted by crime, offenders, and the workings of our criminal justice system?

Introduction: Criminal Justice at a Crossroads

Crime affects all of us, including our faith communities: locked church doors,
security systems and higher insurance rates; parents, relatives, friends who lose a
child; the youth caught up in gang brutality; sexual abuse and family violence; the
elderly woman who is mugged, the child whose parent is in jail.  We hear a lot of
‘crime talk’ and read crime statistics. Too many lives are dominated by fear.

Crime feeds our fears and can limit our hope. As a society and as Christians, we
must consider how this has changed us and the way we view victims, offenders and
the justice system. Do our attitudes reflect our faith values: care of the afflicted; the
dignity of every person; forgiveness and the healing of broken relationships;
accountability; the common good? Do our country’s criminal laws and correctional
system practices make us safer? Do we let fear and prejudice hardens our hearts to
being human with all our neighbours, including our ‘enemies’?

These are challenging questions, especially for those of us who have been touched
by the trauma, rage and injustice of crime.  Nevertheless, these questions must be
asked, and asked again and again. This is particularly the case at this time. The
CCJC (Church Council on Justice and Corrections*), a voice of experience and
research in these matters, reminds us that we are currently seeing a major shift in
Canada’s criminal justice priorities.

Our governments, federal and provincial, are about to invest billions of dollars in
new prison construction. Do policies that emphasize greater punishment, longer
sentences and more incarceration help bring about reconciliation and healing, an
experience of justice that can build peaceful communities?

Is the spending of such vast sums of money on more prisons an exercise in

stewardship when it takes away tax dollars from other areas essential to the
common good?

For here is the sobering reminder:  we have been commanded to love not only our
friends but also our enemies (Matthew 5).  This may feel cruelly intolerable in
some circumstances, and we must be gentle with ourselves about that.  But we
know in faith that God wants to remove that stone and give us hearts of flesh.  We
can help each other to sit with this promise and wait with an open spirit.  We can
seek out new ways of looking for justice that offer more opportunities to foster
healing and grace.