isoalted populations

the kingdom of God is like a man who is released from prison. Upon release he is offered a postion with a local company that distributes food to elderly people who live alone. he is offered a room in a large home at an affordable rental rate. In exchange, he is expected to clean up after meals and tend to the upkeep of the yard. he is given a low interest loan from a church to attend a local community college at night. ON Saturdays he helps the church distribute food at their food pantry. after completing his education, he receives a promotion, and buys a home through habitat for humanity. his wife and three children join him there, after spending four years in separate countries. they adopt a fourth child.

I wonder if this scenerio happens? isn't more likely that people released from prison struggle to gain respect and opportuities for personal advancement?
we isolate people. we do. i've been made more aware of this truth as I have been sent to them, following Jesus there. I started visiting people in prison. now I can't stop. I am interested in their stories. I hear the story of God and of Jesus in their stories. I hear the story of Joseph and John the baptist and Jesus and Paul in their stories. I hear the story of the crucified bandits; "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." These are forgotten people. we isolate them to preserve safety, to maintain order, to protect the self-interests of the average middle-class white american. in so doing, we create a system that oppresses people, keeping them locked up even after they are released. life is harder outside if you've been inside. Its not surprising to hear the alarming rate of return for offenders.
it is hard for people who live above the system of oppression to see it. but I have seen people stuck in prison for months, without any personal progress, rehabilitation, reconciliation, or renewal offered to them. one might say, they had their chance before they broke the law. true. maybe. what if they didn't? Now I'm not just a bleeding heart. what if people are to be held accountable and responsible for their actions and offered mercy, forgiveness, and efforts to reconnect them with the broader gifts of society? I believe there is a third way of dealing with people on the margins. One way is to make ghetto populations. another way is to defend them. a third way is to go and visit them, befriend them, invite them to the way of forgiveness. who else is isolated? The elderly. the sick. the dying. the disabled. the poor. think about housing for people in poverty and how it islolates them from a mixed population. I meet people living in the worst conditions, trailers unfit for animals; cramped, old, apartments in disrepair. and he retirement nursing care facility is a perfect population isolater. out of sight, out of mind. the creatino of certain institutions of isolation has led us to create a gentrified society of have's and have-nots. these institutions need to be reformed from top to bottom. jesus says, "when i was in prison ou visited me,sick and you took care of me, hungry and you fed me." I believe he was the master of reconciliation by reconnecting marginalized people with the center of community life. he deconstructed the solid lines of exclusion and constructed fluid lines of inclusion. tomorrow I will go back to the prison. I will join he isolated population there, if only for a couple of hours. but when i do, I meet Jesus.