An edited version of this story is in the book.
I am over expecting or even hoping for a change in the cruelty of life in prison. Too much in the prison environment pressures the prisoner to continue down a negative path, so I do what I can to counter that, insisting on the value and dignity of each person. I believe that the heart of my ministry is to be the Good News of God’s love to people who, in general, are used to anything but good news. I am meeting people at their most vulnerable and honest times and this is as close as it gets to the gospel spirit that you can. As prison chaplain, I try to offer men and women the space to share their story. They know I am on their side so they trust me and they are even honoured by my listening and accepting them as they are. Through my ministry the prisoners have the chance to recognize love in their frequently chaotic lives. For me it is a matter of discovering the goodness that is at work in each person’s life, getting to know the God who has always been there. I never feel any need to put a religious spin on things; it is enough that the person feels loved at that moment, loved by me, and that brings out the goodness in each person.
The most frightening feature of prison ministry has not been the environment nor who I have seen, met or talked with but what I have discovered about myself. When I entered a prison for the first time I was frightened because I went in as a spiritual advisor. Now I go in praying. I pray each day about the stark and at times illusive gap between good and evil. Karl Rahner put it poignantly in his address to prison chaplains: “We are not essentially different from the prisoners whom we visit in prison. It is only circumstances distinguish us and we must be grateful to God for these circumstances”. Also an inmate at Long Bay brought it home to me, writing: “I am very worried that most of what I know is socially unacceptable… but they were the things that kept me alive in the predatory world that I lived in. Things like, how to steal a car in less than a minute or how to add the glucose just right to double my profit with the heroin I just bought. You see what scares me is that I don’t know a lot of things that Joe citizen takes for granted. What really worries me is that the things that I don’t know about everyday life will lead me back to the things that I do know so well.” As Chaplain the most challenging aspect of Prison Ministry remains the uninvited insights that come to me demanding a prayer of gratitude for a life taken for granted; a life that too often is free only by accident. Prisoners have taught me I am at my best when I depend on God and my constant mantra in prison ministry remains: ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.
If there is to be any hope for the offender of a life after prison and indeed relief to a community so often lost as how to deal with both the offence and the offender it is imperative that community-based aftercare systems be established in order to bring positive change to ex-offenders’ behaviour and communities in general. In this regard, over the whole period of my ministry in prisons, I have worked with Cana Community, who provide valuable and much needed support for the most vulnerable in Sydney. We have developed EASTworks, a companioning program to support people discharged from prison as they transition into the community. EASTworks companions’ volunteer to provide a relational bridge while the core elements required for stability in the community are established: Employment/Education, Accommodation, Spirituality, Transitional support.