PRISONERS are human beings too and as much in God's image as anyone else, says the Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett.
Justice, he adds, is not the same as revenge and those justly sent to prison do so as a punishment, not to be further punished. Writing in next month's edition of the diocesan magazine, The See of Blackburn, the Bishop focuses on November's "Prisoners' Week" which, he says, calls on people to build bridges with those in prison.
He writes: "The prisoners who make up the worshipping communities in the various prison chapels are equally members of the Body of Christ with any of us who share in the life of our parish churches."
Few, he says, would dispute the need for prisons; it was reasonable for society to seek to deter would-be offenders and repudiate wrong-doing, while aiming to bring wrongdoers to a sense of repentance and rehabilitation. A healthy debate would always surround the effectiveness of imprisonment in addressing these aims, but he adds: "A society which displays a knee jerk reaction to complex problems probably short-changes itself and certainly fails to address the true needs of wrongdoers."
Victims of crime could understandably be driven by anger at what had been inflicted on them - an anger which would often lose a sense of proportion and could sometimes lead to further injustice, producing yet more violence and revenge.
Justice, by contrast, he says, was an attempt to break any increasing spiral of wrongdoing by dealing fairly with those who had been wronged and those who had done wrong - allowing society to move once more to a new sense of tranquility.
The Bishop says prisoners baptised and confirmed each year in prison chapels were as much part of the Christian family as any baptised or confirmed in the diocese.
He adds: "Prisoners' Week challenges us to live by the implications of that basic truth."
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