Blessed is he that understandeth . . .

Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: The Lord will deliver him in the evil day. . . .[Douai, Psalm 40] The conditions and practices of prisons continue to amaze me. I will be writing about this on www.faileldhermit.blogspot.com soon. In the meantime, when I remember that American prisons were established by Quakers for the moral and spiritual reformation of those guilty of crimes, I cannot help but think that the American prison system today is almost schizophrenically dislocated from that purpose. For one thing, I keep meeting prisoners who are trying to live holy lives as best as they can, often (and I will write about this also in the future), without regular support from the Church. One man went seven years on death row without the visit of a priest. Some of these are Benedictine Oblates and others are in the process of becoming oblates or are otherwise trying to be good Catholics or Christians of other communities. Often these men are jammed into situations in which their lives are constantly in danger or they must be heroic to live good lives the midst of ugliness, chaos, and prison-culture nastiness. Some excerpts from recent letters: This one comes from a prisoner whose cellmate just got placed on suicide watch in another cell. B writes that “I really doubt that he comes back to this cell. I hope not, Short letter, okay? A lot going on here. My nerves are shot . . .I’ll answer tomorrow if nothing crazy happens. The prison is on lockdown here. The Mexicans and the Crips are at it big time. Power is being shut off. Could be a major shakedown coming. Phones are off. Visits are off. Sack lunches every meal. Something is up. “ D writes: “I have been working nights and it has made me catatonic in the daytime and really tired [D is in very bad health], feeling like I need more sleep. Prison is hard enough in a bad unit where people are being robbed and beat up every week. . . .I’m glad you liked the[hand-made]

icon I sent you . . .a second one I sent to my son, C. . . .Are you excited about the year of Faith we are starting as a Church? My priest has been relieved of his assignment here, so we are without Mass right now. The last two months have been hard because of work and drug-addicted cell-mates. But I have prayed to St. Benedict asking him to help me overcome Satan and his vices. I am praying the Rosary more and reading your prayer book and the daily Mass liturgy.” This one comes from a man just transferred to a different prison. R writes that “time is lost to me right now. I think it is Tuesday but I really don’t know. When I first got to where I’m going I almost died. . . . this is the worst prison in [name of State]. . . . When I first got here they messed with my meds. I kept blacking out. . . .When I got here my glasses got lost. . . .they took over the kitchen and all we are going to get is bologna sandwiches [called in prisons Obama steaks] until all the stabbing and the fights stop. I know that God will keep me safe. . .this is a different world where people can do what they like to us and we can’t do anything back. I know that I have to let God take over but I can’t do that now. I’ll write better when I get a pair of glasses.” Note: America continues to have the highest percentage of imprisoned for its population of any country in the western world. It is the only country in the west that still has capital punishment.