By Andrew Rivas, Executive Director, Texas Catholic Conference

Whenever I say the Lord’s Prayer I am reminded that we Christians are supposed to think about things like justice and mercy, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are also supposed to be humble, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

However, in the context of our modern society, where we spend billions of dollars on a criminal justice system that employs officers, courts, jails, prisons, and incarcerates thousands of men and women, what does justice mean? Is being “tough on crime” or “three strikes and you’re out” enough of a Christian response or do mercy and forgiveness truly have roles in our society? And, now that our state is forced to cut back its spending, how do we as people of faith approach funding for our criminal justice system?

As we speak, our Texas legislature is proposing to significantly reduce or even eliminate all funding for the Chaplaincy Department that serves our state’s jails and prisons. Without chaplains, access to spiritual guidance and faith based programs in our prisons and jails will diminish and possibly even disappear.  The TCC supports increased funding and support for the chaplain corps within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, including ensuring access to inmates by all chaplains. The short term cost savings for our state would likely result in a long term rise in recidivism (people committing crimes and going back to prison within three years) because one of the best ways to rehabilitate an offenders is to help them find and nurture their faith.

Pope John Paul II taught, in his Message for the Jubilee in prisons, that “even time in prison does not escape God's dominion.…those who are in detention must not live as if their time in prison had been taken from them completely: even time in prison is God's time. As such it needs to be lived to the full; it is a time which needs to be offered to God as an occasion of truth, humility, expiation and even faith (3).

In speaking to legislators, I have been told that our budget is in crisis and we have to cut back, and that churches will still provide chaplains for free. While I appreciate the need for fiscal responsibility, the reality is that if there is no funding for chaplains, faith based programs will likely be managed by a correctional officer or staff person. While it is true that Churches will indeed continue to provide pastoral care to those incarcerated as best they can, the hard economic truth is that Churches have to cut their budgets as well. How many of us know a diocesan or parish staff person who has been laid off recently due to the economy?

Our legislators have an enormous task to do this session; they need to pass a fiscally responsible budget that serves the needs of our state. I don’t believe they can do it alone, our legislators need our help. We need to tell them that funding the Chaplains Department and helping prisoners find their faith is the responsible thing to do.

For more information on our support of chaplaincy programs, visit our web site at www.TXcatholic.org and check out our legislative agenda and policy paper on the issue, as well as our testimony section.