Dr. Damone B. Jones, Sr.
Senior Pastor/Bible Way Baptist Church, Philadelphia
Member/Board of Trustees, Philadelphia Prison System
As a minister serving in urban Philadelphia, I have on many occasions visited prisons both in Philadelphia County as well as throughout the Pennsylvania Correctional System. I have visited inmates individually and participated in worship services and Bible studies in a more collective way. But it was not until 2011 when I was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Prison System, that I saw the so-called correctional system from an entirely different perspective.
While touring the facilities in areas where civilians including religious volunteers are not permitted I encountered more African American males than was my desire. It was one thing to read and intellectualize the statistics, but another thing all together to see the faces represented by those statistics. So many looked like me. Some younger, some older, some my age, but all Black males of all ages caged like animals in a zoo, peering through sections of glass in electrically powered iron doors or extending their arms through old fashioned iron gates to rest upon as they watched from their cells time slowly passing them by.
The steady, undaunted growth of the prison industrial complex in America is the church’s opportunity to make an impact for the Kingdom of God. The African American Community is no stranger to oppression, injustice, institutional racism and the like and yet the Black Church continues to stand as it has through the years anchoring our communities and offering the Hope of Jesus Christ to seemingly hopeless conditions in our community. If there is to be any change at all, it must come through the ministry of the Black Church. No other institution is more equipped to minister to the incarcerated Black male.
While this crisis in the Black community continues to intensify I am praying that the Black Church will wade out into the forefront of the issue with prophetic voice and innovative strategies aimed at the reduction of Black male incarceration as well as the reduction of recidivism. Ministry within the walls of jailhouses across the nation are a necessity, but we must not neglect the development and implementation of effective programs designed to support those returning from prison to the community. Ministry to the inmate, returning citizen as well as ministry to the families of those mentioned must be intentional and a part of the overall strategy.
“In what historian Taylor Branch refers to as Dr. King’s “last wish,” the great preacher offered a profound challenge to us, urging everyone to “find a Lazarus somewhere, from our teeming prisons to bleeding earth.” The Black Church can help us recognize – and aid – the young Black males in jails and prisons who are Lazaruses in need of our care. Only then can we begin the difficult but necessary task of helping them fashion a future for themselves, their families and their children” (Goode, Lewis, & Trulear, 2011, p. 55).
We cannot forget about our brothers and sisters behind the wall. They are still very much a part of our community in that every incarceration impacts a family. Prayerfully believers everywhere will take on this issue in mass and begin to embody the words of Jesus Christ: “…I was in prison and you came to Me…Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:36, 40).
References:
Goode, Sr., W.W., Lewis, Jr., C. E., Trulear, H. R. (2011). Ministry with prisoners &
families: The way forward. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.