A KEY TO BREAK OUT OF PRISON

BY JUDY COLE

According to a report by the Pew Center on the States, more than one in 100 American adults is in prison or in a local jail. This total of well over two million people is the highest number of imprisoned people in the world. Globally, at least 9.25 million people are in prison, according to figures compiled from data taken between January 2004 and October 2006. Second to the US among countries with the largest number of people held in prisons is China, followed by the Russian Federation, India, Brazil, Thailand, Ukraine, South Africa, Iran, and Mexico.

The Sentinel asked Judy Cole, now a Christian Science practitioner, formerly a corrections counselor for two years in Lansing, Michigan, to offer some thoughts about specific aspects of imprisonment that would keep inmates from progressing, and how to pray about them. Cole earned a degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University. She continues to occasionally counsel inmates as a volunteer.

For Many People , when someone is sent to prison, the attitude might be "out of sight, out of mind." But what individuals experience in prison actually affects all of us. Despite the staggering rate of incarceration in the United States, there's been no meaningful reduction in crime; and for most offenses the recidivism rates are well over 50 percent. In addition, there are the unintended consequences of imprisonment such as the impact on the children of those incarcerated. They often endure poverty, violent neighborhoods, substandard educational environments, and inadequate parental care, which tend to perpetuate a cycle of failure.

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A KEY TO BREAK OUT OF PRISON

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