lenten journey, day 3 — a prayer for prisoners

In Zambia, there is a prison so overcrowded and neglected that more than 100 men share each small cell. They lie on their sides on the concrete floor for 14 hours per day, like sardines packed into a too-small tin. There is simply not enough room for them to stand or move.

In Bolivia, women who are sent to prison often have no choice but to bring their babies and small children with them. These innocent children become part of the overcrowded and undernourished prison population. Because there is no food allotted for the children of prisoners, they must simply share their mothers’ meager daily portion. This situation is not unique to Bolivia—there are countless children living in prisons all over the world.

Even in America, where conditions are much better, the lonely desperation of prisoners and their families is a largely unacknowledged reality.

Can there be hope in seemingly hopeless conditions like these? Can mercy, justice and punshiment coexist? Is it possible to mourn with victims of crime but still acknowledge the considerable physical and spiritual needs of criminals? Isn't my own sin just as offensive to God as the sin that sends a murderer to prison?

These are hard questions. But this I know…God, who is rich in mercy, has always chosen to identify most closely with the broken, the scorned, and the rejected. In short, He has chosen to love sinners like me.

Father, thank you that you are a God who tempers justice with mercy. I ask you to remember prisoners around the world with compassion today, and to bring your perfect justice to their lives and the lives of their victims. Forgive me for believing that true justice is determined and dispensed by judges and juries. Forgive me for ascribing to fallen people an authority that only you, the righteous and perfectly just God, hold. Lead me in repentence, that I might not rejoice over punishments meted out, but would seek to share your love with the lonely prisoner and the brokenhearted victim alike. Father, would you send out workers to the harvest in jails and prisons across the world? Would you give me the courage and compassion to be one of those who proclaim the freedom of Christ to this and all margins of society? Yes, and amen.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." — Luke 4:18-19

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners,
and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”
— Hebrews 13:3