“JUSTICE SHOULD NOT BE VENGEANCE” THE  NEED FOR RESTORATIVE JUSTICE!

The letters that I get from Florida inmates vividly share the need for Florida Prison Reform. The stories of the horrific prison conditions,corrupt and  brutal correctional officers, rampant drug use, violence and active gangs is heartbreaking. The Florida Department of Corrections has become Institutions of Mass Incarceration with no real productive programs, no real vocational or educational programs. Several groups on Social Media  are pushing for Florida Prison reform. Yet, many opponents respond with well "They Get What They Deserve." To me as a minister If that be the case we all deserve HELL, yet Christ Jesus offers us Redemption. What many are saying really is about a need for Second Chances. A need for a Parole System and a Correctional System not based on Vengeance but upon Restorative Justice. 

The need to focus on redemption with Education, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Vocational Programs and real life skills for Re-Entry needs after incarceration.

 The “Lock Em Up and Throw Away the Key” model is a Dismal failure.

The system is broken, and sadly Politicians are in the deep pockets of Lobbyist, Private Prisons and Correctional Service Vendors, Sheriff's and State Attorneys who do not want true change, they want to make it harder on sentencing and harder on doing time. Mass Incarceration is their model.

Irregardless that the model of Mass Incarceration has drastically failed. 

The streets and cities are not safer. Our inner cities are  still gang, crime and drug infested. They are more violent and more out of control today as ever. 

Put money and effort into interdiction and diversion and rescue those that are the future inmates of your failed prison system. 

Break the cycle not by Mass Incarceration but by getting to the root of the problem and bringing real change to broken impoverished lives and those at risk and on a pathway into the prison system.

It is very political and usually the one with the most Money Wins. 

So change is not going to happen until enough folks who vote have a real voice. In Florida there are over 13,700 inmates with LIFE Sentences, most of those Life Without Parole. On top of that there are about 5,500 or more with indeterminate long sentences with "Buck Rogers Dates"  who will die in Prison since there is No current Parole system under the current sentencing guidelines. 

The Florida Prison System is truly a Hot Mess. With no true Hope. A deep pit of systemic failure.

Currently today there is No pathway out of the dark dismal hole that presently exists with Life Without Parole, indeterminate sentences and long mandatory minimum sentencing. They have cut programs and services to nothing for many. I write an  inmate who has a life sentence and he can't even get his GED or take any Vocational or Educational classes. They are considered walking dead men like modern day zombies of Mass Incarceration. That is the failure of the current system. 

What  I have seen work in my 37 Years of Prison Ministry is Restorative Justice. Giving the tools to those inmates that are willing to work hard and prove that change and redemption is possible and allowing them to prove that in prison and out of prison. Giving a path way to a second chance model works and has proven to be successful more often than not.  Justice should not be Vengeance. Romans 5:8-9 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 

Dr. Mickey Park, Set Free To Serve Ministry.