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HEADLINE: CATHOLIC BISHOPS CALL FOR CHANGE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM;
THEY URGE LESS MONEY FOR NEW PRISONS, MORE FOR REHABILITATION

BYLINE: Patricia Rice; Post-Dispatch Religion Writer

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:


U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday demanded sweeping reforms in the nation's criminal justice system.

A statement unanimously approved by about 290 bishops attending their annual conference here said more attention should be paid to victims, less money should be spent building prisons and more money spent on rehabilitating offenders.

The 41-page document also called for Catholics to treat victims and offenders with human dignity.

"The statement gets to the core of what the church is really about -- our great work of the world of loving all our brothers and sisters," said Bishop Edward O'Donnell, formerly of St. Louis and now of Lafayette, La. In past years, the bishops' conference frequently issued strong statements that opposed the death penalty and called for solving many poverty issues.

But this is the bishops' first major statement that speaks directly to the U.S. criminal justice system, said Barbara Stephenson, a National Catholic Conference spokeswoman.

The bishops' domestic policy committee wrote the text after three years of research and hearings with criminal justice experts, victims and ex-offenders.

The committee found that many communities have lost their sense of security. Even churches lock their doors, bar church windows and hide the electronics systems, the bishops say.

While studies show that crime is down, the national prison population is up - from 250,000 U.S. prison inmates in 1972 to more than 2 million today.

The imprisonment rate in American is six to 12 times higher than the rate of other western countries. The bishops attributed that "astounding rate" of incarceration to tougher sentencing laws, including those for drug offenders.

Catholics should work to see that criminals are given the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, get off drugs, and get adequate treatment for mental health problems, the bishops said.

A compassionate community and a loving God seek accountability and correction, but not suffering for its own sake, the bishops' statement says. Instead, punishment must have a constructive and redemptive purpose, the statement said.

Catholics eager to change the system should consider the roots of crime, such as poverty and poor education, and try to prevent people from being lured into crime, said the Rev. William Pickard, a Scranton, Pa., prison chaplain. "Seventy percent of offenders did not complete high school," Pickard said.

Bishop Edward K. Braxton of St. Louis warned that some in the church might not be receptive to the call for compassion, saying many parishioners have a "very strong sense of wanting vengeance" toward criminals.

Still Braxton hopes that the statement can encourage Catholics to take a more active role in ministry to victims and prisoners.

A drug abuse program administered out of a St. Louis parish was offered as a model at the conference. St. Vincent De Paul Parish in Soulard houses "Let's Start," which offers convicted mothers an alternative to prison.

The Rev. Robert J. Vitillo, executive director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development charity, praised the Soulard program in which the mothers' perform an anti-drug musical for St. Louis youth groups.

Parishioners of St. Marks Catholic Church in Houston, Mo., have begun visiting inmates at a new prison in Licking.

Many who work with prisoners see their deep hunger for a spiritual life.

"I wish every Catholic parishioners gave Mass the intense attention that the Catholic prisoners at Potosi do," Bishop Michael Sheridan of St. Louis said, referring to the Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri. "Most of them want the sacrament of reconciliation (confession) and they sing with all their hearts."
 
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The bishops on criminal justice

Catholic bishops offer the following suggestions for reducing crime and improving the criminal justice system:
 
* Teach children right from wrong by example.
 
* Support scout and athletic youth programs that build character.
 
* Encourage churches and schools to teach conflict resolution.
 
* Assure that jobs and mental health services are available to all.
 
* Tutor and volunteer in adult literacy and self-esteem programs.
 
* Support programs that offer victim reparations.
 
* Promote victim ministry programs.
 
* Mentor families of inmates.
 
* Assist inmates' families with transportation to prisons.

* Promote prisoner re-entry programs by providing spiritual, material and emotional assistance.

* Invite prisoners, chaplains, victims of crime and former inmates to address parish and other Catholic groups.
 
* Oppose violence, including the death penalty.    

NOTES:
To contact reporter Patricia Rice: E-mail: price@postnet.com   Phone: 314-340-8221

GRAPHIC: PHOTO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Color Photo - Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles listens to bishops after he discussed a pastoral statement on criminal justice at a meeting Wednesday of U.S. Catholic bishops in Washington. The statement urged that more attention be paid by Catholics to the victims of crime than to confining prisoners or rehabilitating them.


LOAD-DATE: November 16, 2000