Students seek fairness for inmates

While most Americans see inmates as dangerous criminals, some Boston University students uttered a prayer of hope last night for what they said are the 2.2 million prisoners incarcerated in an ineffective U.S. justice system.

Nearly 35 students listened to the prayer recited by a BU Christian Activists United for Social and Environmental Justice program member, which advocated the power of love, humanity and education. Students then discussed how these components could help change what many said is a flawed criminal-justice system.

“People need to refer to people as people, not inmates and not convicts,” said Emory University prisoner-rights activist Kaia Stern at the School of Theology. “If an individual breaks the law, are his or her rights as a citizen and as a human being denied as well?”

Although the U.S. justice system spends about $60 billion a year maintaining prisons, speakers at last night’s event said this is not enough. CAUSE members, Stern and former inmate Maddie Garcia, who now works as a job developer, spoke about the importance of giving more attention to prisoner treatment and educational resources.

“We need to remember that people in prisons are human beings too,” said CAUSE mentoring program student director Katrina Skayne. “You learn so much about these people when you can visit them and build relationships with them.”

The CAUSE program works closely with a faith-based, nonprofit organization called Partakers in a mentoring program, which sponsors teams to teach prisoners in the BU Prison Education Program.

Partakers’ and CAUSE’s goal is to reduce the number of prisoners who end back in jail by educating and building relationships with the inmates.

Partakers Associate Director Laura Tuach said there is a “proven connection between crime and education.” Sixty-six percent of inmates released from prison return behind bars, but only between 1 and 11 percent of people with a four-year degree return to jail, according to the Partakers website.

“It pained me to see the same people coming in and out, in and out,” said Garcia, who served a six-year sentence at South Middlesex Correctional Center for a non-violent drug-related crime.

Garcia said she is finishing her degree from PEP. She said she wants to “break the statistics” and use her freedom and education to help others.

“The most important way to change things is prison advocacy,” said Skayne, an STH graduate student. “The more people get involved, the more we can transform a person’s life while they’re in prison.”

Stern said it is most important to treat and speak with prisoners as equals to help preserve their humanity and equality.

“If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem,” Garcia said. “How can we call ourselves a community if we are not all working together to help each other?”