Photo: Iona Books
'It happens, ironically, because for some prisoners freedom is a bigger threat than incarceration.'

Author, minister and broadcaster John L Bell has published a collection of his Thoughts for the Day, titled Thinking Out Loud, which were broadcast on Radio 4's Today programme.

This article was broadcast in July 2003.

Celebrity incarcerations
… with a plea for the less favoured

I wonder who came out of prison this morning?

Nobody famous, I imagine, or we would have known. Not like yesterday when a peer of the realm emerged to be reunited with the media who had missed his accessibility for two years.

That gentleman, whom I shall not name, will now be easing himself back into family, employment, property and public life, all of which should ensure that in his case there is no recidivism.

Recidivism – there’s a word not suited to loose dentures. It means re-offending. And it’s something which is on the increase, despite the overall decrease in the crime rate.

And it happens, ironically, because for some prisoners freedom is a bigger threat than incarceration, especially when – unlike our disgraced nobleman – there is no structure to support them on release.

Phoned

So it was that Tony (not his real name) phoned me around this time last year and said,

‘John, I’m being let out on licence in two hours. Can you meet me off the train?’

He had been in jail for a decade. He was 27. He had been given no training for freedom. He had no social skills, he had no idea what money could buy, how to order a hamburger, how to relate to women, how to plan his time.

And the only support network he had was a dysfunctional family who dealt in drugs. So now he’s back inside for another two years.

An isolated case? No, I could also talk about Billy and Brian whose testimony is similar, but whose plight is not a cause célèbre. There’s nothing sexy about prison reform; there are few politicians campaigning for the rehabilitation of offenders.

Maybe that’s why Jesus was insistent that nations would be judged according to how they dealt with prisoners. And the Bible knows quite a lot about prisoners.

Half the New Testament was written from exile or incarceration and the big names like Joseph and Jeremiah and Paul and even Jesus himself were all at one time behind bars.

Marginalised

Nations are judged according to how the most marginalised are cared for rather than condemned, condemnation being the much easier option.

For when any group of people – offenders, asylum-seekers or the mentally ill – is disowned by society, that group is likely to be demonised and we all know what happens when you give a dog a bad name.

In the eyes of the media, celebrity prisoners on parole or release are front-page news. In the eyes of God, the humanity of people in Guantanamo Bay and Wormwood Scrubs and Barlinnie is much more important.

Is that Nelson Mandela shouting, ‘Hear! Hear!’?

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