Rehab

Mass at a local jail had me reflecting on rehabilitation of these twenty-year old men who fully participated in the worship service in a classroom on a warm afternoon.

Then I recall the Sheriff telling a Neighborhood Watch group at a condominium association recently that we have the most jails, and, the most incarcerated in the world.

Go figure.

What's so attractive?

A roof, three meals, companions?  

What?

The group I prayed with Monday admitted that they were spending time in jail for lack of child support payments. And, other felonies, they said as they filed in and out for Mass and wanted to meet me.

As one guy left, he tried to talk.  Emotions kept him from getting the words out.  "It's so hard," he confessed.

"You can do this; you  will get through it," said the chaplain.  He moved on as the elevator awaited him with a space full of men going back to their cell, I guess.

"Use this time well to connect with the Creator," I consoled him.

"You can morph, mend and get on with life," I said, as we prayed for their families, spouses, partners, sick or dead grandparents, among others.

Bill's wife, on the other hand, the regular leader of the Word of God with these men,  told of his wife in hospice care at Sinai.  I could tell he was worried.  Who wouldn't be?

We prayed for her and Bill also.

If most of these guys don't have jobs, then, how can they support children they fathered?

Some steal and rob for items to sell for money, I imagine.

Jobs?

Rehab?

What's going on here?

How do we help this escalating problem of increasing numbers of men and women in jail these days?

Will we bring the finest minds together and resolve to address this maddening issue?

Or, will we pile and press them into the jail?

And, for what?

God help us!