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Published: 16 July 2011

Punishment for punishment's sake is antiquated. We live in a society that strives to have sentencing that fits the crime and a prison and probation system which helps to educate and rehabilitate.

Or do we?

Certainly, until recently, this was the case although what impact the financial cuts imposed on the Criminal Justice System will have on the ability to deliver programmes that change lives is yet to be seen. The response to these cuts will be highly significant, the motivation behind the changes to be made, key? If it involves sending less people to prison, then it should be because it is morally and practically the right thing to do and not because of financial limitations. If it involves sending people to prison, let it be that incarceration itself is the punishment and their time in prison is an opportunity to initiate and pursue personal change.

As individuals, we should be concerned by the levels of incarceration in this country. We know that incarcerating more people for longer sentences neither helps society nor the individual, per se. What is essential is the work towards accepting responsibility for ones actions, ‘education’ and rehabilitation. We need to encourage people, to engage with offenders, particularly with the young, so they don’t turn away from or even against society. We need to work with our young people, to help them recognise their strengths and the value they have in our society. For many, as they have been brought up in a culture that demonstrates individualistic greed and self satisfaction, this will require tolerance and patience.

Again and again it has been shown that reoffending is reduced when the key elements of accommodation, family support and employment are in place. However, more than this, we need to facilitate the building of the individual’s self-belief, self-esteem and self-worth prior to release or the completion of their probation period.

Of course, it is important to respect the hurt experienced by the victim and we need to ensure that justice has been served. Equally, we need to recognise that the feelings of anger and revenge, however understandable, serve only to further dislocate our ability to relate to one another as human beings, as brothers. Development of self-esteem and ensuring that justice is done are not mutually exclusive!

At a time when financial restraint is undoubtedly a contributing factor in setting a context for the opportunities offered to offenders, we need to be very clear, very focussed, and very determined to ensure that the quality of expression and interactions between staff and those with whom they work, is not compromised. If frequency and duration of interaction has to be reduced, let not the quality correspondingly suffer.

The example we set, in our every interaction, can be significant in demonstrating to a young person that they are respected, appreciated, and valued. This can be something as simple as knocking on a cell door before entering, enquiring after their well-being in times of crisis or going that extra mile in order to ensure that they receive the appropriate advice, training, or opportunities.

Is it too great a step to consider that the purpose of our prisons could be perceived as places in which to heal? If so, rehabilitation and reintegration would naturally follow.

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Published: 14 July 2011

Reading around to widen this exploration of ‘forgiveness,’ I came across ideas that embrace forgiveness not just at the level of one human being to another or even one community to another but as one continent to another! Those ideas were expressed at the beginning of this century by Thomas Odihambo, one of the world's leading scientists from Africa. This was at a time when Thomas had encountered the ideas that led him to develop a sense of his own spiritual self as being an immortal entity, a soul, a child of God and, therefore, connected to all other souls. Thomas shares.

“As the idea settled in, I found myself mulling our situation in Africa in light of this new awareness. If we are all connected as souls and connected to God, then why are we not caring for one another? Why does poverty exist in the midst of the most revolutionary scientific discoveries and fantastic technological innovations in human history? Why is there so much revenge and retribution? Why is there so much aggressive competition?

About this time I began to work in a structured forum consisting of heads of state from different parts of Africa to look at this intensifying issue of poverty. I realized that it is not a question of economics, but rather a question of the direction of the focus. What are our intentions? How do we apply our core values, our love, and our commitment to our present and future?

In the last two years, I have come to believe that the real blockage to positive transformation of Africa is something quite subtle: the sense of hurt that has been here since the slave trade and the colonial period. How can we remove this hurt that has been with us for so long? Do we have to avenge the wrongs of this period in order to move ahead?

As I consider the idea of serving at a mental level, serving through thought energy and the kind of mind we must have in order to serve the world, I have become convinced that we in Africa are putting too much energy into the past, that we need to use our powers for the present and the future. We need to forgive and forget.

This is a very lonely position. As I began to speak with my colleagues about it, they raised all kinds of questions: How can we miss this opportunity of the North paying for what they did? Isn’t it right that they should contribute to our development? Isn’t it an accepted practice all over the world that if you do wrong, you pay a fine? Why shouldn’t we follow that route? If we were to follow this well-trodden route of revenge and reparation, the African Renaissance, which the implementation of new development practices presently promises, would likely not happen. What Africa needs, and indeed what the world as a whole needs, are a change from victim consciousness and a turning of the back to the practice of reparation. I have come to believe that asking the North to pay won’t bring about any transformation for them or for us.

We are on a memory lane re-constituting the pain of our ancestors, creating an environment of revenge. We need to get out of this memory lane and be in the present lane. The past is an episode of the past. Accept defeat, forgive, and begin to heal the scars. Only this, I believe, will remove the most significant blockage to our development. After that, we will move very fast because a sacred place will have been created in our hearts and minds.”

While the ideas Thomas proposes are at a continental level, they do of course relate to the individual for the shift at the macro level is the result of aligned attitude of the micro level - its individuals.

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Published: 16 July 2011

What a remarkable period in history we are presently witnessing in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. The people of one arab country after another taking to the streets to overthrow their rulers in an attempt to usher in democracy. Seeing footage of the mass protests, passions are high and courage is very much to the forefront. After decades of emotional suppression, there is a powerful wave of honest and open expression directed at the country's leaders and their supporters.

Watching these scenes unfold during the last two months, I was reminded of some powerful insights that were shared in one of the workshops conducted during the Spirituality and Justice seminars. The insights were in relation to how confrontation between two parties is actually a rare occasion for honest expression of thoughts and feelings. The focus for that conversation was relationships between prisoners and staff.

Imprisonment constitutes a severing of human relationships. Behind high walls, gates and fences, the prisoner is physically cut off from society at large. Contained within the institution, the prisoner is isolated from his personal social network of family, friends and neighbours.

In such a context, it comes as no surprise that both prison staff and the prisoners often find it difficult to communicate with openness and mutual respect. How can staff and prisoners relate to each other as persons of equal worth when everywhere there are signals of rank and status which distinguish them?

Is it any wonder that staff and prisoners find themselves in opposition, which may result in confrontation. The conventional view sees confrontation as, at best, a breakdown in communication and, at worst a threat to security. But confrontation also offers an opportunity for communication for along with an outburst of hostility, it provides an eruption of honesty. Confrontation is a rare and precious chance to communicate directly with the person - the real person, not the prisoner/role.

During such times, there is a need to be in control of ones emotions for only then can the outburst can be perceived for what it is: a breakthrough and not a blockage. However negative the interaction, however brief the time available to us, however pressing the external demands upon us, if we operate with awareness of ourselves and concern for others then we can, with them, transform the confrontation into a positive interaction, expressing value and regard for both the other person and ourselves.

For example, imagine at one end of a corridor, a prisoner is pacing, shouting obscenities. At the other end stands a member of staff, first cajoling and then commanding. Their raised voices attract the attention of other prisoners and staff who watch warily, sizing up the situation, wondering whether to intervene. What started as an angry exchange between individuals has become a contest of power between representatives of enemy camps, fuelled by the presence of an audience.

Their language will be different but, in fact, both are looking for the same outcome: "Respect me!" United by a common fear of losing face it is hard to see a way out. In fact, what is needed is not a ‘way out’ but a ‘way through.’ It is only possible for the prisoner and staff member to extricate themselves from this conflict by engaging with and taking notice of each other. At this point, they are ignoring each other, each conscious only of their own needs and feelings and oblivious to those of the other person.

When we feel unable to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, it is often because we are wearing a matching pair. If we seek to bring about movement, then it is always far easier to take a small step yourself than to compel another to walk. Importantly, if your first step is sideways rather than forward, then so much the better as communication alters dramatically when we shift from ‘face-to-face’ to ‘alongside’. By doing this, we are moving from the demand, “Respect me!” to the acknowledgement, “I respect you” and this entails no loss of self-respect. In valuing others, we do not diminish ourselves.

A willingness to communicate, no matter what the other person says or does, can transform a ‘no win’ interaction into one offering mutual gain, where there is no need for bargaining: ‘I’ll respect you if you respect me’ is a hostage to fortune, dependent on the other person’s response. By contrast, ‘I respect you and I also respect myself’ is an exercise of power, lying wholly within your own sphere. There is nothing the other person can do to weaken this standpoint. Offering respect to an ‘opponent’ confers strength upon yourself.

If the staff member addresses the prisoner’s need to be respected, then it is much more likely that the prisoner will feel able to reciprocate. However, while consumed by their perceived ‘need,’ neither will have the capacity to offer recognition to the other. The goal is mutual respect and so, to reap co­operation, we must sow communication, even in the fields of confrontation. In such a way, the contested ground will, in time, come to be perceived for what it is: shared ground.

And for Libya and Col. Gadaffi? Can this apply?

Well, Lord Malloch-Brown, the former Foreign Office Minister, is of the opinion that the conflict is approaching a position of stalemate. He opinions that the only way forward is for the warring parties sit down around the table and seek political solution. For this to happen, some level of respect is vital. So maybe, just maybe, the contested ground will, in time, come to be percieved for what it is: shared ground!

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Published: 02 July 2011

‘Give them what they deserve!’ How loaded a statement is that? Can you repeat those five words in your mind and not conjure up some negative association, whether feelings or imagery.

In the late 1990’s, the then Home Secretary suggested that if one were to release to the general public details of crimes committed, a common cry for many of them would be ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’  However, if one were to share the background details of the convicted person’s life, perhaps including aspects of physical, mental and sexual abuse as a child, broken homes and relationships, or poor living conditions, then the response changes to one of, ‘that poor person. How dreadful! What can be done to help them?’

So what do they deserve?

Some time ago on this blog site, the question was asked as to what our prisons are for? Perhaps the following statements offer an indication.

“Mercy: It is giving people more than they deserve whereas justice is giving people what they deserve. It is the quality of the heart. It is a willingness to forgive when there has been hurt.”

If you are to accept this, it would suggest that the role of the Courts is to give those who have committed a crime an appropriate punishment; to match the severity of the crime with the punishment i.e. to give them ‘what they deserve.’ Perhaps one of the ‘approaches’ those who work with offenders can offer is to give people more than they deserve, in other words to work with the quality of mercy.

What might that look like? The following poetic expression from Anthea Church's book, Inner Beauty , captures it in a very beautiful, uplifting and refreshing manner.

Mercy is the quality that sees behind expression to the need that is inside it; behind the anger to the sadness; behind the coldness to the fear. Mercy goes behind and meets the hidden needs of a person’s mind, their child-self.

To have mercy is to know the vulnerability that is in you and feed it with what you are learning, so that it strengthens and becomes level with your adulthood and calmness. Mercy is to know that, though it often asks for what is visible and material, the mind's needs are deep­er and more demanding and cannot be met by anything false or short term.

Mercy is the wisdom to see that a failing mind needs a system in which to meet its needs. Real mercy is not therefore merely softness or com­passion but a spiritual system, whose clear footsteps hold God's pres­ence and so, when followed, become a meeting point with Him. That meeting is itself the most valuable present a human mind can receive. In it lies a training for the senses; a training to draw them inwards so that alone from influence, the mind can regain its strength and learn what is unique to it - as though, in a moment of quiet victory, it receives its own inheritance.

When a mind finds its strength again, it develops the confidence lo re-­enter the world and be alive and gifted in it. Mercy is to keep the strict­ness until the last moment and to help others do the same, so that they no longer bank their lives on temporary attractions but move towards the hidden beauty that is in them.

This is why it is wrong to blame someone when they hurt you, for blame sees only what is outside and not what lies behind it. Mercy is to think, do and speak only what leads inwards to where the real rea­sons lie.

I wonder then, if the doorway to forgiveness is mercy.