THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD S. R. WARE THEOLOGY OF THE INCARCERATED: VIEWS FROM THE UNDERSIDE Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006 THEOLOGY OF THE INCARCERATED: VIEWS FROM THE UNDERSIDE STUART REGINALD WARE Submitted for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Biblical Studies UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD and the URBAN THEOLOGY UNIT, SHEFFIELD September 2006 SUMMARY OF THESIS THEOLOGY OF THE INCARCERATED: VIEWS FROM THE UNDERSIDE This thesis deals with the development of a contextual theology that explores the use of prison as punishment and its consequences from the perspective of those who have served a prison sentence. My painful journey through imprisonment and the early years following my release, are paralleled by my early struggles in the development of this thesis and my theological reflection. The result is the development of a hermeneutical model that begins with a critical reflection on the historical use of imprisonment as punishment. The next chapter contains extracts from my diaries of my time in prison (1996-97) and the years following my release up to 2001. Chapter Three contains an analysis of my interviews with sixty-two former prisoners in order to record their 'dangerous memories'. The second half of my thesis begins with the exploration of consciousness­ raising in an attempt to understand control and surveillance techniques that continue to exclude the incarcerated and are used to govern our lives. Chapter Four also explores the concept of knowledge-power on the part of the Establishment, including the Church. Yet I find the powerless and excluded also have a knowledge-power. The fifth chapter is a biblical and theological reflection, based on the previous chapters that draw on contextual and liberation theologies. Due to my experiences that challenged my preconceived ideas of God, I produce a number of theological perspectives in my postmodern understanding of God in Jesus: the non-violent God who was incarcerated and executed, and in so doing, became our Liberator. The final chapter deals with post-incarceration praxis that challenges the scapegoat mentality that permeates our society, calling on the Church to recover its founding roots to become the Community of the Reconciled and to embrace the excluded. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE - THE USE OF PRISON AS PUNISHMENT 6 1.1 Justifying the use of prison as punishment 9 1.2 The penal system prior to the nineteenth century 13 1.3 Reform of the penal system during the nineteenth century 15 1.4 The modem penal system: 1900-1945 20 1.5 Post-war influences on the penal system (1945-1979) 22 1.6 Politicisation of the criminal justice system (1979-1997) 24 1.7 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' (1997-2001) 27 1.8 A 'New' Labour Agenda: 'not tough enough on crime' 30 CHAPTER TWO - CAPTIVITY AND EXILE: EXTRACTS FROM MY DIARY 35 2.1 Journey into captivity (1994-1997) 35 2.1.1 Pre-trial 37 2.1.2 Remanded in custody to await sentence 39 2.1.3 Doing time 43 2.1.4 Reflections 52 2.2 From captivity to exile (1997-2001) 53 2.2.1 Coming to terms with freedom 55 2.2.2 Encountering the 'glass wall' 57 2.2.3 Reflections 60 CHAPTER THREE - DANGEROUS MEMORIES: OTHER PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCES 64 3.1 Sociological insights on the effects of incarceration 67 3.2 Prisoner criminology 68 3.3 A theoretical basis for exploring motivation and obstacles to change 70 3.4 Research design and methodology o(my four-year study 71 3.5 Main findings: more control, less care 77 3.5.1 Pre-incarceration: influence of home, school and caring agencies 77 3.5.2 Coping with alcohol and drug problems 83 3.5.3 Sexual health 86 3.5.4 Other health and social fmdings 88 3.5.5 Effects of incarceration on the family 89 3.5.6 Obstacles to rehabilitation and remaining crime-free 91 3.5.7 Care and treatment of older prisoners 92 3.5.8 'Dead Men Walking': the effects oflong-term incarceration 98 CHAPTER FOUR - VIOLATED SPACES: RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS 105 4.1 Main findings: the value of family, faith and community networks 106 4.1.1 Family and social networks 106 4.1.2 The important role of local services and caring agencies 109 4.1.3 Faith-based groups III 4.1.4 Two examples of faith-based initiatives 113 4.1.5 Prisoner and family-led agencies 114 4.2 Motivating change: revisiting Paulo Freire's 'conscientization' 116 4.3 Foucault and the concept of knowledge-power 120 4.4 Social control in a disciplined world 124 4.5 Knowledge-power: Christian influences and theological insights 127 CHAPTER FIVE - THEOLOGY OF THE INCARCERATED 133 5.1 Reconstructing my image of God and the Church 135 5.2 Emphasising the contextuality ofa theology of the incarcerated 141 5.3 Jesus the Incarcerated 146 5.4 Jesus as Liberator of the incarcerated 150 5.5 A theology of the incarcerated 156 5.6 Faith and hope: a basis for survival 160 CHAPTER SIX - RECONCILIA nON: A NEW PRAXIS FOR THE INCARCERATED 165 6.1 Insights and judgements for a new praxis 167 6.2 Removing obstacles to a new praxis 173 6.3 A new praxis for a Community of Reconciliation 178 6.4 A new praxis for being 187 6.5 Is anybody out there, or is it just an illusion? 191 APPENDIX 194 BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 INTRODUCTION Prison mirrors the defects in our society: we may not always like what we see, for it reflects our phobias, fears and nightmares. Prison is seen by many to be a convenient place of exclusion for the misfits and the unwanted and has become the sanitation service that our modem society demands. It is a place to house the nonconformists, the ones society cannot understand or control. For those of us who have to pass through the prison gates, especially for the first time, it is entering a world that views life from a different perspective - from the underside, gaining an experience that will shape the rest of our lives. For many, the loss of liberty is a devastating experience from which they will never fully recover; for others, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the view 'from below' is an 'experience of incomparable value', despite the loss of freedom. We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled - in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. The important thing is that neither bitterness nor envy should have gnawed at the heart during this time, that we should have come to look with new eyes at matters great and small, sorrow and joy, strength and weakness, that our perception of generosity, humanity, justice and mercy should have become clearer, freer, less corruptible. We have to learn that personal suffering is a more effective key, a more rewarding principle for exploring the world in thought and action than personal good fortune. 1 These words by Bonhoeffer express my own experience of incarceration, as I have journeyed from anger. hurt and despondency to hope and a better understanding of what it means to be powerless and marginalized. My story began in 1994 with my arrest on fraud and theft charges; it took me across a line. to a world of the excluded. After serving almost one year of a twenty-one month sentence in 1996. I came out of prison having lost everything. I was trying to make sense of the experiences of my recent past and what I was going to do with my life as I approached the age of sixty. I was fearful of the future, living in sheltered accommodation and separated from my wife. All I did know was that I was beginning to rediscover a sense of purpose 1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (ed. Eberhard Bethge; London: SCM Press, 1971), p.17. 1 in wanting to do something for those I had encountered in prison. But I had no idea what direction to take, afraid of repeating my mistakes of the past and overwhelmed by self-doubt. It was a time for reflection and the opportunity for doing this arose when in 1998 I commenced my PhD programme at the University of Sheffield. However, by this time I was clear about three things: firstly, I wanted to dispel the myth that all prisoners are dangerous; secondly, that there were serious abuses taking place against vulnerable prisoners; thirdly, that the emphasis on reducing re-offending and 'protecting the public' had replaced rehabilitation as the focus of resettlement. In the final years of this thesis my interest moved more towards exploring issues surrounding reconciliation, for I was coming to the conclusion that no one was seriously looking at this aspect within the criminal justice system. Sad to say, I am now of the conviction that there are far too many interested parties, such as the growing number of bureaucrats and professionals who rely on the system for their livelihood and the private sector, who would like to see the multi-billion pound penal system expand even more. Since my release from prison in 1997 a further 17,000 new places have been built by the Government to bring the useable operational capacity to 77,107, with plans to further increase capacity to about 80,400 by 2007. My thesis explores several themes related to punishment and incarceration, based on my personal experiences of imprisonment.