We live in a broken society, but the Church is uniquely positioned to have a profound and lasting impact on the surrounding culture.
“For me, having a husband that’s incarcerated, it’s like we’re incarcerated too.”
Shamika Wilson is expressing the experience of many who have a family member behind bars. In a short video produced by Al-Jazeera, Wilson and several other people who have had their families separated by incarceration express the challenges—financial, emotional, and even physical—of having a spouse, a sibling, or a parent in prison.
The following post originally appeared as a BreakPoint radio commentary.
For a long time, Prison Fellowship has believed that the United States incarcerates far too many people at far too high a cost. What’s more, that cost does not take into account an important set of victims: the innocent children of offenders.
"If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others." - Richard Foster
James 2:14-16 instructs us to show our Christian faith by meeting the needs of others. When those “others” are the families of the incarcerated, we often need to help first with physical and financial needs – and then meet their needs for emotional and spiritual support.