Inmates deserve a good lesson in morals

Most people agree that inmates deserve fewer rights with minimal access to costly public services, but some services have a direct, positive impact on society

when an inmate is released.

     A group recently announced

plans to pool resources and

build a new sacred space for                           The point

inmates at Burgaw's Pender

Correctional Institution. Such                           A prison chapel

an addition would more than                        and ministry would

pay for itself.                                                        help deter some

    If violence can be mastered                          criminals from

during adolescence, as it is in                         relying on violence

some, then moral prowess can                          when released.

be engrained during a person's                     Hopelessness is a 

adulthood if the right tools and                      costly condition

right people are in place.                                  that can be

     If this seems like bleeding‑                       redirected to a            

heart humanism, think again.                             moral life.

When 93 percent of the more                    

than 700 inmates in Burgaw are

released, most will likely remain

living nearby ‑ in the same place

where they grew up, in the same place where they chose

to commit a crime.

What kind of people do you want living in your community?

A chapel wouldn't be a luxury. It would serve as a tool for changing the culture of crime within the prison itself. Should we continually pay for criminals to perfect their bad habits in prison?

A chapel would formalize a community of people willing to change their acts. In a perfect world, it would help deter repeat offenders from making the same mistakes. In the real world, helping just a few will more than suffice.

Besides, jail time is among the costliest of public services offered in the United States. Any effort to alleviate the incalculable human cost of violence ‑ and invariably lowering the public price tag ‑ is worth a try.

Jailing criminals and paying for their lethargic existence is a reactive, but costly crutch.

Of course, we're not saying jails should be abolished but deterring further acts against society through an active prison ministry and chapel is the right thing to do.