Goa: The 13th convention of the Prison Ministry India (PMI), which drew unprecedented participation of over 450 delegates, on Saturday urged the government and the church to adopt concrete measures to ease the hardship of those behind bars, their families and rehabilitation of the released.
“Incarceration must give every opportunity for prisoners to accept their own guilt, and acknowledge their need for repentance and reformation. It is the duty of the government to make sure that prisoners enjoy the fundamental and basic human rights,” said the ‘Mission Statement’ of the PMI convention held at St Joseph Vaz Renewal Centre in Goa during Nov 15-19.
Pinpointing ‘serious problems to be remedied’ PMI urged the government to take “immediate action” to end overcrowding, corruption, delay in trial, neglect of health and hygiene, and address the large percentage of undertrials in prisons.
The PMI also emphasized the need for steps like facilitating “visits by Spouses and Family Members, Classification of Prisoners, Adequate and Qualified Prison Staff, Scientific, Systematic and Regular Training of Prison Staff… including special consideration to women prisoners especially the pregnant and mothers with children.”
Quoting Pope Francis, the PMI that has over 8,000 volunteers working in over 1300 jails across India challenged the church with the question: “If these brothers and sisters have already paid for the evil committed, why is a new social punishment put on their shoulders by rejection and indifference?”
While targeting to increase the number of volunteers by 5,000, the PMI urged the bishops and the dioceses “to launch many more schemes for released prisoners such as employment, housing, healthcare, marriage, shelter homes and homes for prisoners’ children.”
“Serving prisoners is serving suffering Christ. Pope has shown the path for us,” Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, Patriarch of Goa, said in his presidential address to the assembly on Nov 16, setting tone for the delegates to put before the assembly their aspirations and hurdles they face in their unique service to those behind bars and their families.
Calling for reintegrating the prisoners (when released) into the society, Cardinal Ferrao pointed out how Pope Francis went to jail and kissed the feet of the prisoners on Holy Thursday.
“It is an unforgettable lesson in courage and Christian compassion. We have the duty to reach out to those behind bars,” exhorted Cardinal Ferrao.
Bishop Alwyn D’Silva, chairperson of CBCI desk for the Prison Ministry reminded the convention the challenges lying before them:1,306 jails in the country are ‘over-crowded with an occupancy rate of 130%” and “for every ten prisoners, only two have been convicted” (with the rest being undertrials).
“Let us not forget that repentance and reconciliation are acts of grace and spiritual warfare for overcoming our worldly challenges and struggles,” reminded bishop D’Silva calling for strengthening the Masses, Eucharistic adorations, intercessory prayers, rosaries and Divine Mercy chaplets for fruitfulness of our PMI ventures.”
As part of that, PMI has started 24-hour ‘intercessory invocation’ for those languishing in jails and their family members from its headquarters in Bangalore.
“Prison Ministry is not just social service. It is rooted in prayer and divine intervention,” noted Father Francis Kodiyan who co-founded the Prison Ministry with Fr Varghese Karippery in 1981 when they were in the Vadavathoor seminary at Kottayam in Kerala.
While PMI now runs 20 rehabilitation centres for released prisoners and homes for children of prisoners, PMI assembly decided to get 5,000 new volunteers to boost its service in states with less volunteers and also provide for rehabilitation of released prisoners with financial support.
Apart from that, the Goa assembly has decided to open 10 new homes for released prisoners and 10 special homes for trafficked girls and provide 5,000 scholarships for children of prisoners according to their needs.