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Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News

Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News. Back in October of 2008, I blogged a series on the increasing failures of our national crime and prison policies. At that time I pointed out that states such as California were already spending 10% of their budget for prison costs with it expected to go higher. Since then, you have probably been hearing the news... [Read more]

On the Bible and forensic evidence

Have you ever wondered why some of the rules of evidence in Scripture are so strict? Read the New Testament account of the trial of Jesus. Look at the words of the high priest as he confronts Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is utterly frustrated because of the testimony of the witnesses. Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found... [Read more]

Michael Vick redux

Just last May, Fr. Ernesto ran a series on penology in the USA. As part of that series he pointed out our tendency to never forgive or forget what a criminal has done. In fact, part of the problem of rehabilitation is our USA tendency to “speak with forked tongues.” Ask any good conservative Christian, and they will laud the forgiveness given the woman caught in adultery, to St. Peter who... [Read more]

Late follow-up on penology

Well, I had thought I had left penology behind, but a recent incident in Florida leads me to take one last crack at what we have become as an American culture, and, sadly, as way too many Christians. The story of William Dillon is a nightmare of injustice. That is how the article begins in the Florida Today newspaper. Mr. Dillon was convicted of a capital crime 27 years ago. It is just too bad that... [Read more]

Some final thoughts on penology

I will stop here on the subject of penology, but there is more that could be said. Let me just make a couple of final comments. Yes, I do believe in incarceration for some. There really truly are evil people who need to be taken away from society, who make society significantly less safe by being out and about. There are also some truly damaged people who are, perhaps, best served by being kept in... [Read more]

The penitentiary movement and harm to this culture

As I wrote on my post for 21 May, the original penitentiary movement was meant to do away with cruel and unusual punishment and replace it with a system based on Christian thought and oriented towards rehabilitation. In fact, there are three words that are often found in discussions of our prison system: Rehabilitation — the restoration of someone to a useful place in society Retribution... [Read more]

On prison and Christian thought

Recently someone posted the note below on my post regarding prison and recidivism. However, I forgot to answer it, so here it is in full: Great post. Would that we all would take chances on those in prison. So often we stop after visiting the, if we even do that! I wonder if Orthodox thought has addressed the fundamental idea of prison. To me the premise seems fundamentally flawed. Sure, perhaps some... [Read more]

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On recidivism and our responsibility

Father Orthoduck recently received a note in which a person commented on the problems that an ex-con faces, and there is significant truth in what that person said. The problem is an offshoot of the popular religiosity subject which Fr. Obregón is beginning to discuss on his Orthocuban posts. In the USA officially we believe that when a person has served their full time (incarceration plus parole)... [Read more]

National crime and prison policies are failures, part 05

There is not really much said about crime and punishment in the New Testament that can guide the Christian who wishes to set governmental policy for criminals. This is because the apostles and disciples were outside the governmental system, and only saw it defendants. In passing, this is why we have to be careful about how we cite the New Testament with respect to governing a country. By and large,... [Read more]

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National crime and prison policies are failures, part 04

Woman Caught in Adultery So, what is the religious component to this prison policy change? Any theology can be misused and misrepresented. Anything that is true when said in a balanced way, can become untrue when only part of it is misused or when it is misunderstood. And, this has been true of Evangelical/Fundamentalist theology with relation to the prison issue. One of the strong preaching points... [Read more]