D034 Support and Advocacy for Restorative Justice and a Moral Commitment to Abolition of Prisons and Policing

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring,

That the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church recognize that the moral witness of the Church stands against racially-inequitable practices of exclusion and punishment and against our current systems of prisons and policing which function as racist systems of social control and treat people who have committed crimes as disposable; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention repent of the fact that The Episcopal Church never adopted resolutions calling for the abolition of chattel slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries, and repent for our complicity in the our society’s ongoing racially-inequitable reliance on policing and prisons to produce security for some people at the expense of the lives and dignity of others; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention affirm that Jesus proclaimed freedom for prisoners (Luke 4:18) and promised the possibility of justice aimed at restoration even for those who murdered him (Luke 23:34), and thus that our baptismal vow to “proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ” calls us to proclaim God’s desire for liberation for all who are incarcerated and for real justice and accountability that restores relationships, transforms situations of harm, and aims at reconciliation, which is the core mission of the Church; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention affirm that abolition of the current system of prisons and policing is a moral obligation and advocate for the abolition of prisons and policing, recognizing that prisons and policing form an inequitable system of racial control and a site of violence and dehumanization that does not resemble nor bring about the liberating and reconciling justice of God; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention of The Episcopal Church encourage all Episcopalians, parishes, congregations, dioceses, and prison ministries to engage at the local level in restorative and transformative justice programs, which seek to prevent and respond to crime and harm in creative and non-violent ways beyond prisons and policing; and encourage parishes, congregations, dioceses, and prison ministries to learn and teach about abolition and uphold abolitionist values within the contexts of their own ongoing work for social justice; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention hereby reaffirm and deepen The Episcopal Church’s commitment to advocacy for policy changes to end mass incarceration (Resolution 2015-A011) and defend the rights of disabled persons within the criminal legal system (Resolution 2015-D-32); and The Episcopal Church’s opposition to solitary confinement (Resolution 2018-D029), private prisons (Resolution 2015-D067), monetary bail (Resolution 1973-D097), and the school-to-prison pipeline (Resolution 2015-D068); and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention of The Episcopal Church further direct the Office of Governmental Relations and urge all Episcopalians, parishes and congregations, and dioceses to advocate for policy efforts consistent with the goal of the abolition of prisons and policing, including reforms aimed at disinvesting from police and reinvesting police budgets in other community needs, such as these specific policies:

  • Supporting efforts to close prisons and jails, and policies that release incarcerated people; opposing governmental plans to open new prisons or jails, including plans for facilities for specific populations, such as immigrant detention facilities (see Resolution 2022-D031)
  • Supporting policies for reducing police budgets or disinvesting from policing
  • Supporting monetary investment in community needs such as affordable housing, health care, and education, because investment in poverty reduction, health, and education in fact reduces crime and promotes public safety
  • Supporting restorative and transformative justice efforts in the criminal legal system that bring about restitution, accountability, and healing for both perpetrators and victims;

And be it further

Resolved, That this Convention of The Episcopal Church further direct the Office of Governmental Relations and urge all Episcopalians, parishes and congregations, and dioceses to oppose reform policies which do not lead toward the abolition of prisons and policing, including:

  • Opposing increased investment in police budgets for new hires or police “training” programs, because larger police forces and new training do not shift resources towards other community needs that address the underlying causes of crime.
  • Opposing police militarization and NDAA Section 1033, the federal act which provides for selling military supplies to police departments
  • Opposing the prosecution and incarceration of police officers for excessive force and civil rights violations, because prosecution of high-profile cases does not change the resources given to other community needs, and reinforces the punitive logic of prisons and policing
  • Opposing reforms that offer supposed “alternatives” to prison like electronic monitoring or house arrest, which actually increase the scope of systems of incarceration and criminalization, and increase the number of people under correctional control
  • Opposing reforms that aim to build “better” prisons, such as by focusing on specific populations or by replacing old jails and prisons with newer facilities, which requires further investment in the carceral system;

And be it further

Resolved, That this Convention of The Episcopal Church urge the Committee on Corporate and Social Responsibility and Episcopal Migration Ministries to take abolitionist opposition to prisons and policing into account in their advocacy and decision-making.

Explanation

Mass incarceration and police violence are profound injustices in American society. Both are products of a culture of white supremacy that seeks to enact control over Black Americans, in particular. Additionally, US prisons are structured by practices of security and dehumanization that lead to violence and inhumane conditions, while efforts to reform policing have failed to control the violence committed by those entrusted with state authority.

The moral witness of the Church stands against practices of exclusion and punishment, especially those enacted in racially-inequitable ways. Our current systems of prisons and policing function as racist systems of social control, and they treat those who have committed crimes as disposable. The promise of the Gospel is the promise of justice for the marginalized and of restoration and redemption for those who have done harm to others. The hope of the Church points to the coming reign of God where there will be no prisons or police, but instead the true justice and peace of God.

Our call, as the Church, is to be faithful to that vision of God’s justice by standing with those calling for the abolition of the current system of policing and prisons and its replacement with restorative and transformative forms of justice and community safety.

The moral obligation to stand for abolition is rooted in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and in our baptismal covenant. Jesus proclaimed freedom for prisoners (Luke 4:18) and promised the possibility of justice aimed at restoration even for those who murdered him (Luke 23:34). Our baptismal vow to “proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ” calls us to proclaim God’s desire for liberation for all who are incarcerated. We must proclaim God’s desire for real justice and accountability that restores relationships, transforms situations of harm, and aims at reconciliation, which is the core mission of the Church.

Our baptismal vow to “work for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being” requires us to recognize the ways that policing and prisons are systems which function to uphold white supremacy and restrict the lives and liberty of marginalized people, especially Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Americans. Furthermore, the violence and abuse committed by police and occurring within prisons, including the torture of solitary confinement, restraint in shackles and chains, and other inhumane conditions, directly degrade human dignity. Being subject to police violence in one’s community or being locked in a cage is not consonant with the dignity of every human being. Our baptismal covenant calls us to seek alternatives to any such imprisonment and violence.

The current US system of prisons and policing derives from the history of chattel slavery and Jim Crow segregation. American prisons and policing, in practice, function as a system of racial control — a “new Jim Crow”[1] — established on a basis of anti-Blackness. Because of these historic connections, the current movement for prison and police abolition is a successor to the 19th-century movement for the abolition of slavery. Bishop James Theodore Holly repeatedly submitted resolutions to the General Convention calling for the abolition of slavery, but The Episcopal Church never adopted or endorsed them. We were on the wrong side of the abolition question in the 19th century. Let us be on the right side of this debate in the 21st century.

The Church has been complicit in our society’s reliance on policing and prisons to produce security for some people at the expense of the lives and dignity of others. In the baptismal covenant, we promise that “whenever we fall into sin, we will repent and return to the Lord.” Measured opposition to “mass” incarceration but not to incarceration more broadly, attempts to improve prison conditions, and efforts to seek police reform are not sufficient. God desires that we “return to the Lord with all our heart” (Joel 2:12). We must renounce sinful and dehumanizing systems of policing and incarceration and commit ourselves to equitable and peaceful systems of public safety. A moral commitment to aspire for the abolition of prisons and policing is true and necessary repentance.

Additional resources:

Other faith-based organizations pursuing and studying abolition include (links attached):

 

Books:

The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee Griffith (Eerdmans, 1993)

“Prison Makes Us Safer” and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration, Victoria Law (Beacon, 2021)

Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores, Dominique Dubois Gilliard (IVP, 2018)

Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System, Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray (Augsburg Fortress, 2006)

We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, Mariame Kaba (Haymarket Books, 2021)

Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, Maya Schenwar (Berrett-Koehler, 2014)

 

Policy suggestions are drawn from Critical Resistance's Abolitionist Reforms. See attached documents.

 

[1] See Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, New Press, 2010.

 

Support Documents:

Christians for Abolition website

Community Safety Toolkit from SURJ-Faith

Abolition Curriculum from the Mennonite Church

Abolitionist Sanctuary website

CR_abolitioniststeps_antiexpansion_2021_eng

CR_police_reform_vs_abolition_chart_revised

 

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