Any approach to the prudential matters facing the criminal justice process must involve state and civil society working together to seek the common good at every level of society.
“Christians need to be encouraged to participate in the debate on criminal justice and prisons and to apply their faith directly to issues of controversy. Christians need boldly to challenge the myths and prejudices which underlie so much penal populism”.
Written in 2004, these words of our previous landmark publication on criminal justice, A Place of Redemption, ring just as truly today.
Chronic problems of sentence inflation, prison overcrowding and stubborn reoffending rates continue to corrode our criminal justice system. Concern for victims, fear of crime, lack of concern about conditions in prisons and their ineffectiveness as well as unease around rehabilitation continue to shape public discussion and political decision-making. Rather than succumb to vengeance or concede to the chaos of crime, the Catholic understanding of criminal justice calls us to pursue both justice and mercy through a proportionate balance between just punishment, rehabilitation and redemption.
The contribution of Catholic social teaching to such questions is particularly distinctive in the placing of the primacy of human dignity as the animating principle for the decisions of the legislature, judiciary and the wider community. Moreover, the Catholic social teaching principle of solidarity urges the treatment of criminal justice, from care for victims to support for the reintegration of ex-offenders, as a matter of right relationship for the wider community, rather than simply transactional exercises of crime and punishment. The principle of subsidiarity highlights the value of local responses to such matters, rooted in the knowledge and understanding dispersed across families, charities, and local communities.
Faithful Catholics can reasonably disagree on the many prudential matters facing the criminal justice process in England and Wales, from the use of custodial sentences to the practice of restorative justice. Nevertheless, any approach to these matters must involve state and civil society working in tandem to seek the common good at every level of society to support victims, rehabilitate offenders and witness to the redemptive power of mercy. Given the many pressures on our courts, prisons and probation services, there is an open window of opportunity for civil society to better support the state in the practice of criminal justice.
“I was in prison and you came to me […] And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:36-40)
Sometimes cryptic in his teachings, Christ was clear in his command to remember the plight of the prisoner and to care for them in their marginalisation. There are many others to remember in the criminal justice system – victims, families, members of the judiciary, and wider society – and our care for them is central to our Christian calling. We recognise that the human practice of justice and mercy will always be imperfect and limited in some ways on earth. However, we can, in seeking the common good through legislation, community action and Christian charity, lay fitting foundation stones for the kingdom of God, to which a repentant criminal was one of the first entrants.
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By practising justice and mercy towards each other, we share in the love of God which can redeem even the most challenging circumstances
