Howard University School of Divinity Prepares Churches to Confront Incarceration and Re-entry Issues

Howard University School of Divinity has signaled its intention to raise greater awareness and to be far more proactive in helping church communities address the urgent issues of incarceration and re-entry into society faced by the African-American community.

At its 91st Annual Convocation, entitled “Healing, Restoration and Community: The Black Church Confronts Incarceration and Re-entry,” held Nov. 7-8 at Howard University‘s East Campus, distinguished African-American
theologians from across the country explored one of the deep-seated social issues facing the African-American male, and by extension, the African-American family.

Among the painful realities that the conference sought to highlight was the effect of the high rate of incarceration on the community and the challenges faced by all as former inmates attempt to rebuild their lives.

“According to the Department of Justice, nearly 650,000 people are released from state and federal prison annually and a far greater number re-enter communities from local jails. These individuals are often returning with little or no support for positively re-establishing themselves within society,” said Harold D. Trulear, Ph.D., convocation chair and professor
of Applied Theology. “And, the majority of them are connected to our churches, whether directly through family or personal membership, or indirectly through the church’s locale. As a prophetic community, the church community has a civic and spiritual responsibility to assist with the healing and restoration of these individuals and their families.”

Overall, the statistics on incarceration paint a bleak picture for the African-American male. Data from The Children’s Defense Fund released this year states that a black boy, born in 2001, has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, compared to a one in 17 chance for a white male. Further, one in three black men, 20-29 years old, is under correctional supervision or control and 580, 000 black males are serving sentences in state or federal prisons. Of the more than one and a half million children with a parent in jail, black children are nine times as likely to have a parent
incarcerated, a fact that increases their own risk of doing jail time to six to nine times that of other children.

Co-sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, HUSD convocation featured lectures and discussions on topics like Public Policy, Incarceration and Re-entry; Re-entry: The Church’s Mission of Reintegration; Re-entry: The Church’s Mission for Reintegration and Models of Ministry for Incarceration and Re-entry .

Participants included: the Honorable Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL), author of the “Second Chance” Bill; Creasie Finney Hairston, Ph.D., dean of School of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago whose research includes the impact of incarceration and re-entry on families and children; Rev. W. Wilson Goode, Ph.D., director of the Amachi mentoring program; Rev. Dr. DeeDee Coleman, executive director of Wings of Faith, Inc.; the Honorable Judge Alexander Williams Jr., U.S. District Court, who has championed sentencing reform; and Howard’s own Charles Lewis, Ph.D., professor, School of Social Work, whose expertise includes African-American males and faith-based social services.