We certainly wish this program in Indianapolis well, but I am afraid it will be another in a long line of failed programs built on the well-documented unsuccessful model that providing one or another services—employment, counseling, education, etc—can modify the internal dynamic that brings an individual into close communion with the criminal world.
Deciding to leave the criminal world for the true communal world of the Catholic Church and productive citizenship, requires a strenuous, prayerful effort, of which the year long RCIA process plays a supportive role; and it is our contention that the only guide in this internal transformation—who will have authentic access to the criminal—is a reformed professional criminal already having traversed the terrain.
An excerpt from the Indianapolis Star article about the reentry program.
“Indianapolis would spend more than $1.5 million in economic stimulus funds on prisoner education and re-entry services under a proposal unveiled Monday.
“The proposal -- part of the city's plan for using $6.4 million earmarked for law enforcement activities -- calls for hiring 200 ex-convicts in temporary jobs at the Indianapolis Department of Public Works.
"We have 5,000 people coming into our community every year" after their release from the Indiana Department of Correction, said David Wu, policy director for Mayor Greg Ballard. "If you don't work to keep them from re-offending, they are going to clog the criminal justice system."
“The proposal also calls for spending about $1.3 million to upgrade the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's automated fingerprinting system, which Wu said will become obsolete by this fall.
"They had to replace it one way or another," Wu said.
“The spending plan was introduced at Monday's City-County Council meeting. The council is expected to vote on the plan May 2.”
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.