Prison

I've been visiting a woman at Lancaster Co. prison. She has been in for almost a month now. She was charged with a probation violation with a failed drug test. She is not a user. The probation officer failed her. While she is there, she is mistreated. She is not allowed access to her prescription meds. When she is, she is prescribed a double dose, which she stops taking after two days. She is told nothing after her arrest. Two weeks pass before she knows anything about her own situation. Three weeks pass before she sees a lawyer that friends on the outside retain for her. Another week passes before she finds out a court date. People who are charged with more serious crimes are processed faster than she. She sits. She waits. Why?
We are praying for her release on May 29th, her birthday. She is ripe to know the God of liberation and release. She is ready to meet the rescuing God. Now would be the time for God to act on her behalf in a decisive way. She will remain patient until the day comes. but may it come on May 29th or sooner.
The goal of the system is not release but retention. To keep people in, rather than to reform and free. Shouldn't the goal be to improve people's lives before they are released? Shouldn't prison create opportunities? Shouldn't we care what happens to people on the inside?
Like all large institutions, however, membership is everything. Nonmembers don't tend to care what happens therein, unless they are connected or invested in some other way. Church people are like this too. We want to keep people in. The goal is to send people out better than when they came in. With God's blessing, instentions, forgiveness, and missional love. The goal is to send people out, not keep them in. But institutions are flawed. They are centripetal in nature. God is a centrifugal force---pushing out from the center to the margins. People are closed. God is open. People are limited. God is infinite. People are isolated. God is all-embracing.