From The Inside

Lockerbie Bomber

After weeks of speculation, international debate and politicizing, it has been confirmed that the so-called Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, is to be released from prison on compassionate grounds since he is in the late stages of terminal cancer, and is to be allowed to return home to be with his friends and family.  Opinions on whether or not this is the right decison will be varied, as is already obvious on both sides of the Atlantic.  In my own humble opinion - and these are entirely my own personal views and not those of anyone I may work for - I applaud the decision that was taken - and here are my reasons!

• I think nothing is served by keeping any prisoner in prison until he dies.  Once it becomes apparent that a prisoner is in the final stages of any terminal illness then, for the wider family's sake if nothing else, he or she should be allowed to die surrounded by loved ones - irrespective of what they have done in life.
• Anyone who is terminally ill needs an increasing amount of medical care and treatment, for pain relief if nothing else, as their illness advances.  Simple basic humanity surely demands that we provide this to anyone rather than let them suffer needlessly.  Prisons are just not geared up to provide the level of medical care that is necessary.  I have sat with prisoners who have been dying.  I can assure you, a cold concrete cell in the midst of a busy prison is no place to die.
• I am proud that Scotland as a nation has shown grace and compassion - especially to one who is convicted of committing one of the worst crimes ever within Scotland's jurisdiction.  As a Christian I believe Jesus said we needed to learn what it means to show mercy.  It is the sign of a great nation that doesn't wallow in bitterness and vengeance, but shows mercy and compassion to a human being who is close to his death.
• Also as a Christian I believe in a higher court, or rather that at the end of the day that God is judge and justice will ultimately be done.  Wrongs will be put right.  What is even more significant in this particular case is that there seems to be those who feel that there is strong evidence to suggest this prisoner is not guilty.  I am not in any position to comment, but what if they are right?  If he is indeed innocent then it is bad enough that an innocent man has spent the last remaining years of his life in prison, no mind that he should be made to die there too. 

Exodus Update

Exodus is still doing well.  Since April when we started we've had over 20 guys pass through our doors - most of them coming along regularly.  Some travel a fair distance which makes it difficult sometimes for them to get transport through etc.  Ideally we should have local Exodus groups all over the place - but as yet we don't have enough folk to make sufficient numbers in each place.  But hopefully those days will come.  Of all the guys who come along none as yet have been returned to prison - which for some has been a major achievement!

Our format is simple - we have a time of singing and worship which is usually a pretty enthusiastic affair - in fact last night I had to cut it short (well it was nearly 10pm!) because the guys were singing so loudly (some would say shouting!) that I really was afraid that 2 policemen were going to come through the door saying that there had been complaints!  (We are next door to a pub and we still make the most noise!).  But it was great to see the guys so into it - last night they just stood up and raised their hands in the air.  Having no strap on my guitar at the time, I was the only one left sitting!!

Then we have a lesson from the Bible - we're working our way through Mark's Gospel.  I love the perspective the guys sometimes bring to the passages.  (Concentration is still sometimes an issue - and keeping them all focussed - but I've had plenty of experience of that in the prison!).  Last night one of the guys kept wanting to read us passages that he had just discovered in his Bible through the week such as Philippians 2 and 1 Corinthians 13 - both well known passages but he kept asking "have you ever read this before?"  I told him I wished I could be reading them for the first time again like he has been, and getting blown away by them.

And then we have a prayer time - which can either be everyone praying in turn - or else individuals being personally prayed for.  All this happens amidst loads of coffee/tea, cakes and general chatting and catching up.  It can be 10.30pm or even later before we get folk to leave!

One guy who left the prison a couple of weeks back and who would love to come to Exodus but lives too far away (although he's managing to come in 2 weeks) sent me this text on Wednesday that made my day.  It read (I quote) "A prayed today for the first time since ive been out it felt realy good god bles the world:-)"  He has little support - so keep young James in your prayers.  (He was an irregular attender at Chaplaincy things in the jail - but one time when he came down he was complaining bitterly about having ear-ache, so to keep him quiet I got a few of the regulars to take him into a corner and pray for him - and he was healed!  He has never really made a commitment though - but he's not resistant either.)

No Words To Say

Sometimes as a prison Chaplain I get accused of being too soft on criminals.  Too gullible for believing their sob stories; too quick to minimise what they have done.  I hope that isn't true, although at the end of the day it is my calling as a Chaplain to care and seek to empathise, and my duty as a Minister of grace and hope to help the men resolve their past and look upwards to seek a better future (and in doing so hopefully help them not to reoffend and harm any more victims). 

But it is also true that I get to hear stories of childhoods and home situations which are truly tragic.  This doesn't excuse what they have done - but it helps to explain how they ended up in the situations they did.  From that point of view, my job can be quite emotionally draining. 

Take today.  I met a young man who was serving his first sentence - for carrying a knife, which, thankfully, he never used - so maybe his was a victimless crime (although it could easily have turned out otherwise).  But I had been asked to go and chat with this young man cause he really wasn't coping too well with the trauma of being in the jail.

In the course of the conversation he told me that his mum died suddenly last year; her heart basically stopped while in mid-conversation with himself.  She was only in her mid-40s.  A few days later his eldest brother, who was a drug addict, was found frozen to death on a park bench having been too drugged to get himself home.  This young lad found it so difficult to come to terms with this that it culminated in him ending up being pulled naked from a toll bridge by the police where he had been standing ready to jump.  (I noticed that his arm was covered in scars - the tell-tale signs of a self-harmer).

One of his biggest fears of being in prison is that his father, who doesn't keep well, dies while he is not there to take care of him.  "Take care of him?"  I asked.  It turns out that this young man is his dad's main carer since his mum died - showering and clothing him etc - since he is in a wheel-chair, having broken his back.  "What happened?" I asked.  "Och, he tried to commit suicide a few years back and it didn't work - he just broke his back and now he's paralysed."    Every day, he told me, his dad says he wants to die - but he doesn't know what he'd do if his dad wasn't there.  Some young lives have just had too much pain to bear.  The thing is, he didn't tell me all this with an air of self-pity.  In fact it was his matter-of-factness that made it all the more tragic.

He tried to move out and get his own flat.  On the first night, as he and his dad were just sitting down having moved him in, a brick came smashing through the window - a welcome gift from some of the local lads.  His dad wanted him to come home there and then - but he wanted to stick it out.  He gave up the next week however when he came home to find his front door kicked in.  His is a rough area (he told me that a group of lads recently rolled a police car into a burn while the policemen did nothing but watch and radio for back-up).  He'd love to move away but (apart from his dad) he is on Methadone, having been a heroin addict since a young teenager - and it would be too complicated to get his treatment transferred to a new area.

Why do I tell you all this?  Simply because as he was speaking I was wondering - "what can I say here?"  "What does the Gospel have to say into this situation?"  "How would this young lad even begin to walk the Christian path in the midst of this community?"  Tell me, how would you have 'ministered' to him?

Family Connections

I attended a conference a few weeks back which was looking again at how important it is for prisoners to maintain healthy, positive relationships with their families while serving their sentence. Prisoners who do so are statistically shown to engage better during their sentence (and, from a prisoner management perspective, be better behaved!) as well as be less likely to reoffend on release.  Families are meant to cope better with the separation from their loved one, and the reintegration of the prisoner at the end of the sentence is supposedly smoother.  In theory all that is well and good, and for many it is maybe true.  For that reason the prison service I work for have recently drawn up a new set of (ambitious) standards which prisons ought to aim toward in regards family contact and prison visits etc.  (Saying that, there is no extra funding being made available to enable these standards to happen - such as childrens play areas in every visitor waiting room.)  No one can fault these aspirations however.

On the other hand the reality is that many prisoners want no contact with their family while serving their sentence.  They want to switch off from life outside, not wanting to be reminded of everything they are missing out on; not wanting to be weighed down by the problems and stresses their families are going through but which they themselves can do nothing to help with; not wanting to go through the helter skelter of emotions as they look forward to phonecalls and visits followed with the heaviness of when they end.  Selfishness - or just self-preservation?

I met one prisoner the day after my conference.  He was up to high-dough.  His wife is suffering with chronic back-pain.  Their only child, a son, is having to be the main carer aged 12, but is also taking advantage of his mother's illness and getting up to mischief.  Now the mum needs an operation - but can't get anyone to take the son in for a few weeks while she is in hospital and then recuperating.  The prisoner is not a good coper at the best of times and is now being pulled down by the worries about his loved ones on the outside.  He is not alone.

Maintaining contact can also be stressful for the families.  Very often having lost the chief income-earner there is now the added expense of buying things for him in prison and the cost (to say nothing of the stress and hassle) of making visits to the prison.  [A recent survey of visitors at the prison where I work discovered that the average costs for transport to the prison was nearly £50, and took between 4-6 hours.]  Some families also prefer to 'protect' their children, and tell them that dad is working away etc - and many just don't want to take children into a jail.

Family contact.  Two sides of the coin.  Which is best - frequent quality contact, or pulling back for the duration of the sentence?  It wouldn't be a call that I'd want to have to make.

More Barf

Well, I've gone for it.  After my previous blog about B.A.R.F. (Bones and Raw Food), I decided while on holiday to give it a try - and as you can see from the photos, the dogs (including our 11 week pup) are loving it.  We did have some kibble to finish off when we came back - and have been putting it in their bowls side by side with their raw food - no prizes for guessing which goes first! 

We did have to buy a new chest freezer, but their food is now coming from a company in England called Landywood Pet Foods.  Think it works out cheaper for us - and is tastier and healthier for the dogs - so everyone is a winner.  It's early days - but I'll let you know how we get on!!