Above photo: The site for a new halfway house in Northeast Washington. CORE DC.
An experimental halfway house in the nation’s capital will bring humane and empowering programs to those returning from incarceration.
With nearly two million people in prison and an incarceration rate five times higher than most countries on the planet, the United States is the world’s only carceral superpower. Our nation has a long tradition of “justice” that is articulated in a cold, calculating and harsh expression of punishment. Despite this history, a counter narrative surrounding imprisonment and punishment in the United States has also existed — one that is based in reform, repentance, restoration and redemption.
Quakers in Philadelphia spent decades in the early 19th century protesting harsh prison conditions and ultimately convinced the Pennsylvania Assembly to reform their model of imprisonment. The opening of Eastern State Penitentiary in 1829 marked the beginning of a new model that emphasized how prisoners — through self-examination and penitence — could be redeemed. Hence the word “penitentiary,” which originally envisioned incarceration as a state of penitence that could lead to redemption. It was a model that was praised internationally at the time for its almost monastic nature. Although this approach was later abandoned, attempts to create more humane approaches to imprisonment continue today.
Nearly 200 years later and 140 miles south, in our nation’s capital, there has been an effort over the last five years to put in place a Residential Reentry Facility (or halfway house) in Washington, D.C. for men returning from mass incarceration. We are in the final stages of building the facility, which — when completed — will house up to 300 returning citizens. (That is the preferred descriptive for those who have been incarcerated and are returning to the community). Our engagement, through a New York-based organization, CORE, is to bring humane and empowering programs to the returning community.
In a society that has increasingly become punitive, it is our hope and desire to create models that are redemptive and restorative. In this judgmental culture, it is important that endeavors are created that are hope-filled and successfully repatriate people back to their communities with opportunities to become productive citizens and a benefit to society.
Instead of a cold, calculating and harsh expression of punishment, the hope and methodology can be built upon a platform of repentance, reform and redemption. Instead of continuing with incarceration built solely upon punishment, it can be reformative and redemptive. This will call for programs where the expectations are firm, but at the same time compassionate, caring and hopeful. The ultimate goal of incarceration is that a person can be restored, redirected and redeemed — and acts that violated the community contract can be healed.
Washington, D.C. lacks statehood and this fact makes the inequities glaring to the rest of the country. One of those glaring deficiencies is that convictions in Washington, D.C. can lead to incarceration anywhere in the country. The 50 states that make up the United States run their own prison systems, and incarceration generally takes place within their respective states. In Washington, D.C., however, felons are turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons upon sentencing. This means that those convicted from Washington, D.C. can be held at any of 122 institutions the Federal Bureau of Prisons operate. Those who are incarcerated, therefore, are separated geographically from their communities and family. Depending on where someone serves their time, the distance can be prohibitive for family members who lack resources for travel and the accommodations that are necessary. Therefore to have a Residential Reentry Facility with services in D.C. can be empowering for the step towards repatriation with community and family.
Our efforts in D.C. may seem like a small matter to some, but in the larger scheme of things it is an effort that can to some degree humanize the people we serve, offer opportunities to be reunited in the community and with their families, and to do things with a caring heart and a spirit of justice. We are aspiring to offer compassion, care and hopeful release that will be beneficial to our clients, who have suffered mass incarceration, as well as the community seeking protection from crime and reunification with family members. The Men’s Residential Reentry facility that CORE DC is building in cooperation with the Returning Citizens community of Washington, D.C. will move us closer to creating a compassionate, restorative and redemptive experience.
Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler is Senior Advisor at Fellowship of Reconciliation and pastor emeritus at Plymouth United Church of Christ, in Washington, D.C.