By Lisa Powell
SAU Theological Perspective

With all the recent discourse around mass incarceration in the U.S., many are now familiar with the history of the development of the carceral system, a history imbued with religious intentions. Early prison reformers in the U.S. sought a model based on what they considered Christian principles of redemption. This would stand in contrast to what the colonies inherited from England: debtors’ prisons and the regular use of corporal and capital punishment.
Some of the first prisons on American soil were built as penitentiaries in the late 18th century. Previously, jails were primarily holding cells as one awaited trial and the punishment determined proper: fines, floggings, public humiliation in the stocks or execution. Such punishments were expected to deter criminal behavior but confinement wasn’t typically the punishment required.
Under the influence of Quakers seeking rehabilitation rather than the punishment of individuals who broke laws, the old Walnut St. Jail in Philadelphia was reconceived to include a “Penitentiary house” of solitary cells where those confined could reflect, seek spiritual enlightenment and practice discipline toward reform. The purpose was to elicit true regret and sorrow for the wrong, or penitence, which would stir a transformation of the heart. A person then would leave prison changed, ready to contribute positively to the community. Punishment was not the purpose of prison nor was retribution the goal. This conception of imprisonment with the purpose of penitence toward the restoration of one’s spirit and purpose spread to other states.
By the early 19th century, some prisons offered annual salaries to chaplains who would take up this important task of reform among those confined (Jennifer Graber, “The Furnace of Affliction: Prisons and Religion in Antebellum America”).
Chaplains worked within the system to promote repentance and transformation. Through simple labor, basic education, humane conditions and spiritual guidance, those who committed a crime would be rehabilitated and leave prison set on a path to purposeful citizenship.
Early on in this experiment, however, some observers noted the cruelty of confinement and isolation utilized to bring about this supposed change in the inmate. For example, Charles Dickens observed on a trip to the U.S. in 1842: “The system here is rigid, strict and hopeless solitary confinement. … I believe that few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon its sufferers.” (Charles Dickens, “American Notes”).
Current understanding of the emotional and psychological impact of solitary confinement is just as grim. In 2016, President Barack Obama banned its use in federal prisons on juvenile inmates and as punishment for low-level infractions. He also reduced the number of consecutive days allowed for first-time offenders to 60 days instead of 365. This change only applied to federal prisons, which currently confine close to 160,000 people, while state prisons cage approximately 1,071,000 people and local jails hold over 500,000 people awaiting trial. While the federal ban does have an impact, possibly reducing by 25% the people in isolation in federal prisons, it touches only a fraction of the overall prison population (https://tinyurl.com/53wcrc9b).
We now know that solitary confinement is among the more destructive practices in the penal system and does not put the one caged in touch with their humanity and spiritual worth. Regardless of the intention for spiritual transformation in the construction of the first penitentiaries, they have been replaced with systems set on punishment and retribution rather than rehabilitation and transformation.
The criminal justice system has expanded far beyond what the original organizers of the penitentiary in the U.S. could have imagined. The system that emerged has become an industry, which seeks more spending, further expansion and more prisons. Over 5 million people in the U.S. are under supervision in some capacity of the U.S. criminal legal system, according to 2022 figures. Despite having only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. has almost a quarter of the world’s incarcerated.
By some counts, one out of every 100 people in the U.S. are in confinement (state, federal or jail). The problem of “corrections” extends beyond the vast number of people held in cages and the length of their sentences, which are among the longest in the world. Numerous studies demonstrate racial inequity within the various steps of the legal process, from police stops to jury selection, pressured plea deals, the pursuit of the death penalty and experiences of re-entry, to name a few.
Further, the conditions of prisons and jails are often inhumane sites of abandonment, violence, torture, humiliation and rape. As one example, in January 2023, Tony Mitchell died of hypothermia, naked in a holding cell in an Alabama jail with no bed, mat or toilet, only a drain on the cement floor. He had been arrested two weeks earlier after his cousin called 911 saying Mitchell seemed to be having a mental breakdown and it might be good to send an ambulance.
This is an example of the cruelty, abuse and utter disregard for an inmate’s humanity and of the current system’s inability to respond to mental health challenges. Changes in the philosophy around prison have created an utterly punitive system due to “tough on crime” legislation that seeks the suffering of those deemed criminal. This system cannot serve to rehabilitate or reform. As one prison warden commented, “Rehabilitation? They come here to die!”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), published “Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration” in 2016 outlining many of the problems with our current system as it runs counter to the human dignity of each person and their right to safety (both the victim and the one incarcerated who is subjected to degradation and violence).
The document also offers recommendations for policy change and community-based restorative practices. In Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” he calls all Catholics to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide and he calls a sentence of life in prison a “secret death penalty.”
Further, he calls for Catholics to work to improve prison conditions. We must see the personal dignity of even the worst criminals, as God values their inherent human dignity. People who are incarcerated are among the “least of these” we are called to serve.
(Lisa Powell is a theology professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. She serves as director of Justice, Diversity and Gender Studies and DEI curriculum.)