Threshold Fall/Winter 2008

Jail Break
by Barbara McCracken, OSB

There have not been many jail breaks from the Wyandotte County Detention Center and it is not easy to get into it either. The paperwork application is extensive and the waiting afterwards is long. The required training workshop was disappointing. Besides procedures, “don’ts,” and rules, one fundamentalist speaker was determined to put the fear of God and hell in us, as well as fear of the inmates.

I have been interested in doing some kind of jail ministry for many years and always assumed that, if I did, I would work among men . . . and do it when I was older. Now I am older, and find myself going in every week to teach, and sometimes just listen and be with, a small group of women. It could be anywhere between two and thirteen people. Probably more than half are women of color and most grew up poor. Somewhere in childhood or adolescence most were sexually violated.

The women I’ve met in detention are often as honest and serious about their faith as those I’ve met anywhere. Their struggles are right up front, staring them in the face, and most don’t hesitate long to talk about them. First is that maternal struggle: they miss their children and babies. Many have had them taken into state custody and, even when they get out, they will not be getting them back any time soon. Other concerns are how to deal with their addictions to drug and alcohol when they get out. Without help, they know they will go right back to them, and many do, for I meet them months or years later back in detention.

The need for education of the “girl child” (the United Nations term) is something I always stress with the young women, as I believe that is the needed path out of poverty and violence. As children, many of the women I see did not get an adequate education. Being a firm believer in their ongoing need for it, I can recommend places where they can get basic literacy if they read below fourth grade level, and there are also places where they can get their high school equivalency diploma. Luckily we have Donnelly College nearby and I have met quite a few who have attended there, as well as many who dream of someday attending.

Immediate needs upon release for many will be safe housing, and that is a hard need to fill in this metro area. Employment is everyone’s concern, especially if they will have a felony on their record, although not all do. The young women I meet with are usually in detention for offenses related to drugs and, not infrequently, commercial sex.

When asked why I visit them every week, my answer is that this is something I can do. I do not recommend it to many other people. I do it because it is a little way I can try to live out the gospel command to love my neighbor. It is also our only outreach ministry from the Keeler Women’s Center. I have been given many advantages in my lifetime, so this is a way to give away some of what I have. Perhaps it is a way to push the Kingdom forward a little, to share some hope, to encourage, to love.