Mission & Vision
The mission of Criminal Justice Ministry Services is
modeled after that of Jesus, who treated each person with
dignity and respect, and who valued life as a sacred
gift.
In prisons, jails, and juvenile institutions, we recognize
the broken body of Jesus and are committed to accompany the
incarcerated on their journey toward healing
and wholeness. In the larger community we seek opportunities
to help individuals and communities reflect on the Gospel
imperative to resist all that diminishes personal
dignity and crushes the human spirit.
Our goals are three-fold:
- To provide quality pastoral care and a healing presence
to incarcerated men, women and children;
- To promote Gospel values through education, public
witness and the development of a restorative response to
issues of crime and violence;
- To invite the Christian community to participate
in the healing mission of Jesus by volunteering their time,
talent and treasure. This work includes direct ministry
to the incarcerated and their families, transitional support
for inmates, assisting the Church’s ministry to victims of
crime, and working for systemic change in the
criminal justice system.
Moving Toward a Restorative Model of Criminal Justice
Years of harsh and increasingly retributive responses to crime,
including a drastic increase nationwide in the use of the death
penalty, have resulted in the prison population nationwide
more than doubling but have not helped people feel safe. The
many issues facing Criminal Justice Ministry, including
capital punishment, overcrowding,
lack of effective programs both within prisons and
during the transition process, flow from this reality.
Our hope is to develop a restorative model of ministry that
will help to identify and respond to the deeper needs
underlying the fears in our community. While continuing
our ministry to the many men, women and children incarcerated
throughout our Archdiocese and developing pastoral programs
in currently unserved areas and institutions),
we hope to also develop meaningful and effective transition
programs to assist in
their eventual reintegration into our communities.
Recognizing that the Church has poorly served those who have
been victimized by crime, we will continue our attempts to
develop an ongoing ministerial outreach to assist them in
their grieving and healing process. To date we have offered an
annual Memorial Mass for Victims of Crime and held several
listening sessions with people victimized by crime. We hope
to offer this Memorial service in various areas
throughout the Archdiocese during the coming year, offering
those who come a chance to share their needs and hopes for
support from the Church. Our long-term goal in
this area is to develop a training program for parish staffs;
retreats and support groups for people victimized by crime;
and develop a Chaplaincy position(s) focused
on responding to the needs of victims.
Finally, knowing that our community must develop new
answers to the many questions arising from crime, we hope
to foster a dialogue within our Church community rooted
in our vision as a people of faith. In each of our faith
communities there are people affected by crime - as
victims, offenders, family members or friends. We share in
the celebration of the Word and the Eucharist, but seldom
enter into meaningful conversation on these other important
realities in our lives. We hope to develop
programs that will help our faith communities enter into
an honest and compassionate
discussion about the needs of all affected by crime,
as well as on potentially divisive
issues such as the death penalty and alternatives to
incarceration. In all of this
we hope to help the Catholic community of Western
Washington fashion a response
to crime deeply rooted in our identity as followers of Jesus.