{"id":2556,"date":"2019-04-15T07:53:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T12:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2556"},"modified":"2019-04-15T07:56:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T12:56:17","slug":"when-i-was-in-prison-you-visited-me-by-jan-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2556","title":{"rendered":"“When I Was In Prison, You Visited Me,” by Jan Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Message at Durham Friends Meeting, April 14, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank-you for welcoming me here on this glorious Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus was welcomed like a King into Jerusalem,  less than a week before his death and rebirth. On this day, I am considering Christ\u2019s prescriptions about what it means to lead a good life and to be transformed\/reborn\/resurrected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I consider this passage from\nMatthew 25. Jesus has referred to the people on his right and tells them they\nwill be with him in heaven –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty <\/em>and<\/em><\/a> you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger <\/em>and<\/em><\/a> you took Me in, <\/em>I<\/em><\/strong> was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The righteous respond that they have never done\nthis for him, and he says<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Jesus choose the phrase, \u201cI was in\nprison and you visited me\u201d? At first glance it appears to be out of place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have all fed the hungry and clothed the\nnaked, taken in strangers, or looked after the sick. It is easy to do. Who\nwould not share their food with a hungry child who approached you begging? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026.But, who among us have visited in prison? It\nis not so easy to do. Prisons and jails are not easily accessed, they are out\nof the way and there are barriers to visiting. They also require more than\ngiving things. They require us to give of our deepest self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Do not\nlet these barriers dissuade you, the visit will be transformative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was three, my father was imprisoned. He\nhad a drinking problem. He went to a convenience store, stole some beer and\nmoney from the cash register. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also the breadwinner in our family. His\nimprisonment meant that we had no income and were soon homeless\u2026 My mother was\nnow a single parent of four children under the age of 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were lucky. My uncle, a farmer, offered us a\nsmall plywood trailer that he used to travel to county fairs as our new home.\nIt had a set of bunkbeds. My sister and I slept on the top bunk each of us at\neither end. My mother slept with my two little brothers in the bottom bunk.It\nwas without running water, but did have electricity and an outhouse. Before\nwinter set in we were able to move to a small house that another uncle owned\nand rented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Dad was in jail, my parents divorced\nbecause my dad was also violent when he drank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These events shaped who I am. When a parent\ngoes to jail, it is a public event. I grew up believing everyone knew, but\ntrying to hide it just the same. We carried, I carried that shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you visit jail or prison, you will find\npeople of all colors, religions, and creeds\u2026but mostly you will find the poor,\nthe mentally ill, the abused, societies cast-offs. At a recent meeting of\ninmates at Maine State Prison the speaker asked those who had not had a court\nappointed lawyer to raise a hand. In a room of over 40 people only three raised\ntheir hand. Only three people in the room were deemed to have adequate\nresources to pay for their own attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, you may or may not have seen a\nreport from the 6th Amendment Foundation(the 6th amendment guarantees the right\nto an adequate defense)which was presented to the Judiciary Committee of the\nMaine State Legislature. The report gave a scathing inditement of Maine\u2019s\nindigent legal defense system, saying in some cases it completely failed its\nconstitutional requirements and was ripe for a class action lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In most jails, 70%-80% are awaiting trial, too\npoor to pay bail. Not yet found guilty of anything, they will likely lose their\njobs while they await trial. Others are serving time because they are too poor\nto pay their fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has the highest incarceration\nrate in the world. \u2026higher than Cuba, higher than Russia, higher than Iran. Our\nrate of incarceration is 7 times higher than any other NATO member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who do we incarcerate? In the late 1970\u2019s we decided\nto stop treating addiction as a medical problem and to instead treat it as a\ncriminal issue. Up to 80% of inmates have a substance use disorder. Sixty\npercent have a co-occurring mental health diagnosis. Cumberland County Sheriff\nKevin Joyce is fond of saying that he runs the largest mental health facility\nin the state\u2026.and yet he has no mental health resources. Families tell him that\nthey are glad that their family member has finally been arrested, because maybe\nnow they will be able to get the help they need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, that is not true. We do not do addiction\ntreatment in jails, except in rare instances, and we do not do mental health\ntreatment. In fact, the Department of Corrections will tell you they have no\nbudget for programming. We have so many people incarcerated, that we do not\nhave money for rehabilitation. You have probably heard of the prison \u201cwood\nshop\u201d at Maine State Prison, but did you know that most positions there are for\npeople who will never be released? People with short sentences will likely not\nreceive skills training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Maine, we release close to 1600 inmates each\nyear. Only a tiny fraction are lucky enough to be chosen for reentry beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many inmates released from Maine State Prison,\nare given $50 and their clothes in a garbage bag when they are released. Barely\nenough for a day’s meals, it is certainly not enough to start a new life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why am I here? In 2014 my son was sentenced to\n20 years in prison. My husband and I had adopted  him and two siblings from foster care where\nthey had been in 5 homes in 5 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His imprisonment began my journey of reclaiming\nmy past and of discovering, sadly that he would not get the help he needed in\nprison. In fact, he would get the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you will join me on my journey, because\nin it I have discovered just why Jesus required us to visit those in prison.\nThey are the hungry, the sick, the naked, and the strangers among us. And they\nare the disappeared, the people no-one sees, and the people without a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please join me in prison and in giving the\nincarcerated a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan Collins, Wilton, ME<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition Assistant\nDirector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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