A Christian perspective on prisons

In the UK there are around 89,100 prisoners.  It’s an expensive business caring for prisoners. Last year it cost £6.85 billion. Sadly the present system is not very effective, for the UK’s reoffending rates are among the highest in the western world. 46% of prisoners in England and Wales go on to commit another crime within one year of being released.

I have visited four prisons. The first three prisons were in the North West of England. There I visited ‘Grisley Risley’ in Warrington, which is a category C prison for men. I also visited ‘Strangeways’, the Manchester prison which is a category A & B prison for men. In addition, I visited on several occasions Styal Prison in Cheshire, a prison for women, of whom a number had been convicted of murder. One of these women I actually baptised as she had come to faith. Later when I was a minister in Chelmsford I often visited Chelmsford prison, a category B prison for men.

I have learnt a great deal from my friend and fellow Baptist minister, Steve Chalke. Last year he shared with me some of his experiences in setting up a secure school for young offenders. According to Steve, in the youth prison service there is now a hard-core group of serious offenders, who often have complex psychological problems. Alongside the education and therapy that he sponsors, he wants to set up a more effective safety net for when young offenders are released, and in the process help them with accommodation and employment.

Steve Chalke is not the only Christian involved in trying to help prisoners once they have been released. There is the Howard League for Prison Reform which was influenced by Christian groups, like Quakers and Evangelicals, who promote reform through actively seeking to help prisoners to turn their lives around. In a statement made a few years ago, they said:

Our overriding ambition is to move the dial on punishment away from cruelty and towards building a more humane and effective response to crime that provides justice to all and helps to reduce reoffending.

We recognise that law is the product of power; and that it criminalises and punishes some behaviours, people and groups more than others. This undermines the legitimacy of our entire criminal system and demands challenge in the interests of fairness and equality.

We understand that our current systems of punishment are often unjust, cruel and counter-productive; and that they make our communities less, rather than more, safe. We want to see a reduction in the use of punishment, specifically a very significant reduction in the use of prison and much better conditions and opportunities of those who remain there..

In December 2021 the former Conservative Government published a White Paper on Prison Strategy. According to Jonathan Clatworthy, “It is much as one would expect: extra money for more prisons, more technology, more treatment of drug addiction, more and better trained staff, more education of offenders, more top-down instruction…”, but he doubted whether it would reduce the crime rate. Since then numbers in our prisons have increased. The present Labour Government have promised to fix the prisons crisis by driving through a prisons building programme, as part of their mission to take back our streets and tackle crime and antisocial behaviour. In addition the Government has changed the automatic release point to enable eligible prisoners to be released on licence after serving 40% of their sentence. However, to me and many others this is not really tackling the root problem. We need a more radical approach, which involves spending much more money on helping young people in particular not to be caught up in crime. Sadly, at this present moment the government is slashing the social service budget.

But to deal with the title of this blog, ‘A Christian perspective on crime’, how should Christians respond to crime and those who commit crime?  To begin with, Jesus in his parable of the sheep and the goats said that people who visit those in prison will be welcomed by God into his heaven (Matthew 25.31-46). As a result many Christians have sought to help prisoners. For instance, the Prison Fellowship is a Christian organisation which supports people in prison and their families in England and Wales. It aims to support prisoners by coming alongside them and supporting them to change. Another Christian organisation is BLAST, a Christian resettlement charity working with prisoners in prison and later when they are released. Their mission is “to encourage, support change and personal transformation, which enables graduates successfully to reintegrate into society, leaving their lives of crime behind them”.

In addition, Christians should be active in the rehabilitation of prisoners after they have been released, so that they can reintegrate into society and have a worthwhile career. For instance, a good example of this is James Timpson, whose family have run for many years shops which primarily mend shoes, has pioneered the employment of ex-offenders, to the extent that the Timpson company now employs over 600 prison leavers, who form 10% of the staff. James Timpson is also able to help prisoners on a much larger scale, for on 5 July 2024 he was appointed as Minister of Prisons by the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.  Christians too should care for people who might re-offend.

For Christians there are two guiding principles:  First, they believe that God is a God of justice. He is the ultimate judge. He has delegated the right to judge crimes to the state. When the law sentences a criminal, it is exercising justice on God’s behalf. Second, they believe that God is a God of love.  Although Christians would expect justice to be done in the courts, they would want to see prison helping the criminal to reform.