By Matters India Reporter
Old Goa, Nov 23, 2022: The Prison Ministry India (PMI) has urged the government and the Church to adopt concrete steps to ease the hardship of those behind bars, their families and rehabilitation of the released.
“Incarceration must give every opportunity for prisoners to accept their own guilt, acknowledge their need for repentance and reformation. It is the duty of the government to make sure that prisoners enjoy the fundamental and basic human rights,” said the Mission Statement’ of the ministry’s 13 convention held at St Joseph Vaz Renewal Centre in Goa.
The Nov 15-19 program drew more than 450 delegates from all over India. The ministry has more than 8,000 volunteers working in over 1,300 jails across the country.
Pinpointing ‘serious problems to be remedied,’ the ministry urged the government to take “immediate action” to end overcrowding, corruption, delay in trial, neglect of health and hygiene, and address the large percentage of undertrials in prisons.
It also stressed the need for steps like facilitating “visits by spouses and family members, classification of prisoners, adequate and qualified prison staff, scientific, systematic and regular training of prison staff, including special consideration to women prisoners especially the pregnant and mothers with children.”
Quoting Pope Francis, the convention challenged the Church with the question: “If these brothers and sisters have already paid for the evil committed, why is a new social punishment put on their shoulders by rejection and indifference?”
It urged bishops, dioceses and parishes “to launch many more schemes for released prisoners such as employment, housing, healthcare, marriage, shelter homes and homes for prisoners’ children.”
“Serving prisoners is serving suffering Christ. The Pope has shown the path for us,” Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, Patriarch of Goa, said in his presidential address to the assembly on November 16, setting tone for the delegates to put before the assembly their aspirations and hurdles they face in their unique service to those behind bars and their families.
Calling for reintegrating released prisoners into society, Cardinal Ferrao pointed out how Pope Francis went to jail and kissed the feet of the prisoners on Maundy Thursday.
“It is an unforgettable lesson in courage and Christian compassion. We have the duty to reach out to those behind bars,” exhorted Cardinal Ferrao.
Bishop Alwyn D’Silva, chairperson of the desk for the Prison Ministry India under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, reminded the convention the challenges lying before them:1,306 jails in the country are overcrowded with an occupancy rate of 130 percent and “for every ten prisoners, only two have been convicted.” The rest remain as undertrials.
“Let us not forget that repentance and reconciliation are acts of grace and spiritual warfare for overcoming our worldly challenges and struggles,” reminded Bishop D’Silva calling for strengthening the Masses, Eucharistic adorations, intercessory prayers, rosaries and Divine Mercy chaplets for fruitfulness of our PMI ventures.”
As part of that, the ministry has started 24-hour ‘intercessory invocation’ for those languishing in jails and their family members from its headquarters in Bangalore.
“The Prison Ministry is not just social service. It is rooted in prayer and divine intervention,” noted Father Francis Kodiyan, a member of the Missionary Society of the Blessed Sacrament, who co-founded the Prison Ministry India with Father Varghese Karippery in 1981 when they were in the Vadavathoor seminary at Kottayam in Kerala.
While the ministry now runs 20 rehabilitation centers for released prisoners and homes for children of prisoners, its assembly decided to get 5,000 more volunteers to boost its service in states with less volunteers and provide for rehabilitation of released prisoners with financial support.
Apart from that, the Goa assembly has decided to open 10 new homes for released prisoners and 10 special homes for trafficked girls and provide 5,000 scholarships for children of prisoners according to their needs.