The smells of incense and chrism had not yet faded from the installation of Pope Francis in March of 2013. Easter was a few days away and the pope wanted to go to jail. He went to Rome’s juvenile detention facility on Holy Thursday and washed the feet of 12 young people. It was headline news around the world.

Most visits to jails and prisons don’t get that kind of coverage. The people who line up at the scanner and hand over a driver’s license are more likely to be family members or friends, or, on a good day, an attorney. They get almost an hour to visit, less if it is crowded. The visit areas can be cramped, the phones may work or not, and children do not appreciate the plexiglass that divides the visit space.

Volunteers wait to go through the scanner as well. Their visits will be in multipurpose areas in different parts of the facility. Some from local parishes will lead a Bible study or a Communion service. Others will facilitate a session with the rosary. One couple offers a nondenominational prayer time, a place of welcome and deep silences.

“I pray differently when I’m here,” Laura told me. “As soon as I come through the door, I feel peaceful. My spirit can breathe. I don’t have to fight to get a word in edgewise.”

Photo: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano

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Why volunteer at a detention facility? “That’s easy,” Ben said, “Jesus said so. ‘I was in prison and you visited me.’ Heard that my whole life but one day I was at a friend’s funeral and that was part of the Gospel reading. I almost asked my wife, ‘When did they put that in the Gospel? I’ve never heard it before.’ Of course I’d heard it before, but this time I got it.”

Lucy asked about volunteering “because I read Teresa of Ávila. ‘Christ has no body now but yours, yours the hands, the feet. He looks on the world with compassion through your eyes.’ I had to be part of that.”

Lucy spends her time with women in jail, praying with them, listening to their stories, “trying to see them as Jesus does, beloved daughters of God. I have found God looking back at me through their eyes.”

Photo: CNS/Vatican Media

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“I’ve been doing this for 40 years,” said Regina. “I can’t imagine not being here.” She was retiring, reluctantly. “But I’ll be telling stories at the parish, you can count on me for that.”

She smiled and said, “People don’t know when they’re going to get involved. After Mass one day, Marge asked if we could talk. She knows I go to the jail and she said her son was arrested and looking at a long time in prison. She didn’t have anyone to talk to. Could I help? I said, ‘Come with me. I want you to meet someone,’ and we walked back across the church to the pew where she’d been sitting. ‘Marge, meet Patsy. Patsy, this is Marge.’ You two have more in common than the pew you share.”

Regina was right. Patsy’s son had spent more than 10 years in prison. She could be the face of Jesus for Marge.

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“I was part of a men’s Bible study for years,” Matt said, “and a couple of us decided God was calling us to lead a Bible study at the jail. We were really confident and knew God wanted us to straighten people out, get them on the right path. But God clearly knows better. I learned the hard way, you can’t go into jail thinking you have all the answers. God’s going to do the teaching, and most of the time I just shut up and listen. I have learned real wisdom from people I would never have listened to before.”

Photo: Stephen Brashear

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“Can you pray for my daughter, uncle, friend? Can you pray for my court time tomorrow? Pray for my parents.”

The requests are many. They start small. What is the immediate need? Court tomorrow? Let’s pray for peace, for clear thinking, for hope, and yes, for that attorney who doesn’t seem so helpful. Pray for the judge. For the people in the courtroom. Pray for the person I harmed and their family.

The consistent requests for prayer shift. “Hey, can we pray for you?” someone asks a volunteer. Yes. The prayer is generous, thoughtful. The beloved children of God praying for one another.

Over time, prayer is laced with psalms, the words of Jesus, a favorite phrase. The concern broadens: weather and fire disasters, for safety in troubled neighborhoods, for justice. Always the circle gets wider.

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Photo: Courtesy Joe Cotton

Another time of Word and Communion comes to an end. There is a chorus of “Thank you for coming. It was so good to see you again. Will you come back? Thank you.”

“It has been a privilege to be here,” says Ron.

Songbooks are collected, chairs get stacked, someone checks to see if the officers are nearby to escort volunteers out of the room. Not yet. There is still time for the final blessing. The circle adjusts to include everyone.

There is a moment of silence, the sound of deep breaths, and the prayer leader, borrowing from St. Patrick, says, “May Christ go before you and behind you. May Christ be on your left and on your right. May Christ be above you and beneath your feet. In all your ways, may you go with Christ. Go with God’s blessing, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The group “Amen” is almost a cheer.

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The door buzzes. An officer swings it wide as the volunteers file out. “Come again!” says someone in the back of the room. “We will! We will!” say the volunteers, smiling and waving. They will carry the stories and prayers with them, volunteers and detainees alike, back to where they live and work and pray. Christ has seen and heard and prayed. We are richer for the time spent together.

Shannon O’Donnell, a member of St. Leo the Great Parish in Tacoma, serves as pastoral care minister at the King County Jail in Seattle. She is the author of “Finding Grace Within,” a collection of essays about her work at jail and prison.

What can we do at home to ‘visit Jesus in prison’?

  • Pray for people who are in jail. Pray for their children and families who are confused, scared, upset.
  • You may have a co-worker or classmate who has a close friend or family member in jail. Can you listen?
  • Think about ways you can reach out to someone who is in “time out” at home or school.

What can we do in our parish?

  • Pray at Mass for those in jail. Expand that by praying for the families and friends who are affected, for the legal system and all the people involved in it: lawyers and judges and people who do all the paperwork.
  • Pray for the victims of crime and for their families and friends. Pray for the communities where harm happened. Pray for restoration and peace.
  • Pray for the volunteers who go into jail, especially those from your parish.
  • Consider doing a blessing of all those who take the Eucharist from the parish to people who cannot come to church: those at home, in nursing homes, in jail or prison.
  • Start the One Parish One Prisoner program, a re-entry model that matches parishes with an incarcerated person for their mutual transformation.

Interested in volunteering?

Jail & Prison Ministry 101

By Jean Parietti

Volunteers in the archdiocese’s criminal justice ministry are being trained in “Jail & Prison Ministry 101,” a foundation for Catholic detention ministry that is part of comprehensive certification standards and procedures endorsed by the U.S. bishops in September.

The Archdiocese of Seattle is one of the first dioceses to implement the training, which provides a theological foundation and “best practices” for jail and prison ministry volunteers, according to Joe Cotton, the archdiocese’s director of pastoral care and outreach.

Ministers might bring Bible studies, Mass, reconciliation and Catholic devotions to jails and prisons, but their ministry isn’t about “fixing” people or converting them to Catholicism, or even bringing Christ to incarcerated people. He’s already there, Cotton said.

Instead, it’s a ministry of accompaniment that offers a nonjudgmental, listening presence, Cotton explained: “We meet people where they’re at.”

The new three-level formation process for criminal justice ministry was developed because there was an absence of national certification standards for prison and jail chaplains, Cotton explained.

The new standards were adopted after a five-year, nationwide collaborative process, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The standards are being jointly administered by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and the Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition (Cotton serves on the coalition’s executive committee).

All new criminal justice volunteers in the Archdiocese of Seattle will go through the training, and current volunteers, about 150 people, are encouraged to go through it, even if they’ve been active in criminal justice ministry for years, Cotton said. Most of the archdiocese’s 15 chaplains and about 30 volunteers have completed the training so far, he said.

Ministering to the incarcerated isn’t just one-way, Cotton said.

“People who are incarcerated have something to offer us,” he said. “We become mutually transformed, mutually enriched. We encounter Christ every bit as much as people encounter Christ in us.”

Learn more.

Northwest Catholic — February/March 2022