Many of us remember watching the Lone Ranger when we were children. Every Saturday morning, there he would be, fighting the evil men and bringing justice to the West. He was a Texan in the most mythical sense of the word. He never shot a person directly, but always managed the impossible feat of only […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 — […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
