“Even if you may not know God very well, I can assure you that he loves you very, very much.” These words were written by Ellie, a student participating in the Cards of Mercy project, on a card destined for the San Francisco jails.
The Cards of Mercy project, coordinated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Restorative Justice Ministry, invites schools and faith formation programs to design cards with bright designs and warm messages of hope. These cards are then given to those in custody in the jails for various holidays during the year.
“We must act and show a light of hope, giving assurance to people behind bars that they will never be alone, abandoned, or forgotten by him,” explained Julio Escobar, Restorative Justice coordinator.
This year students from Our Lady of the Visitacion School (San Francisco), Holy Name School (San Francisco), St. Brendan Parish (San Francisco), Mater Dolorosa Parish (South San Francisco), St. Patrick Parish (Larkspur) and St. Mark Parish (Belmont) participated in the Easter project, sending in beautifully designed cards filled with messages of love and hope.
That wasn’t the end of the project, though. On April 13, a group of volunteers — lay and religious, youth and adults — gathered and spent the day assembling goody bags to be distributed inside the jails. The bags included snacks as well as cards. Some included the handmade cards from the student projects, while others were store-bought, with personalized messages written in those as well. Some of the volunteers wrote messages in Spanish, to better ensure the individuals would get a card that they could understand.
“A card with a nice message gives hope and joy to someone who may not have family,” said Josephine Smith, one of the day’s volunteers.
During the day of the project, the volunteers formed a sort of assembly line, with some labelling the bags and adding treats, others writing messages, and others counting and sorting cards. Students from Mercy High School and Stella Maris Academy came for shifts during the day, contributing their talents to the project….
Dominican Sister Diane Smith reflected that we all make errors in our lives, although some lead to serious consequences. “Preparing Cards of Mercy for prisoners was a wonderful way to show these poor people that someone cares about them,” she said….
Bags were also assembled for the staff of the jails, to spread Easter greetings to them as well. “The morale in the jail is really, really low right now,” Robinson stated….
The cards were for each of the 850 inmates in the San Francisco County jails at Hall of Justice in San Francisco and in San Bruno. Another 50 were specially designated for the guards and staff of the jails….
The above comes from an April 14 story in Catholic San Francisco.
That’s pretty awesome! I wonder why other schools didn’t participate? Looking at you Stella Maris. Maybe the Restorative Justice ministry had only so much capacity to coordinate the effort.
Other schools may have other projects. Many of my classes write to people in old folks or veterans homes.
Yes those are other possibilities
Is morale in jail ever high?
Let a special prison project at the church handle an Easter project like this. Not children. Children are very young, innocent, and need protection from dangerous criminals. They should never be given the idea that getting compassionate and close with any criminal, is acceptable, for a child– it is highly dangerous. For the safety of the children, I hope their names and personal information were kept anonymous. A far better idea, is to have the children send Easter greetings to the elderly, handicapped, deaf, blind, and to children with special illnesses and disabilities. Our criminal justice system today, is very liberal-leftist and loose– and crime has been rising dangerously. Many criminals who even have long histories of serious crimes, are not kept in jail for long.
Restorative Justice is a very new and very serious thing– and it does not always work. It is like very serious group therapy sessions between the criminal and the person they harmed– or parents/spouse of someone who was murdered. The people sit in a circle, with a trained facilitator, who tries to get the criminal to admit to his crime and talk about it, and apologize for it, to those whom he has harmed. The victim and their family work on their tortured feelings, and on forgiveness. It is a very, very serious and deep, traumatic situation. When the therapy sessions do work, and real progress is made, reconciliation nay occur, and criminals may change their lives and become a better person. And victims may find peace of mind. That is what I read.
I just barely read about the new concept, “Restorative Justice.” For those who gave a “thumbs down” to “Restorative Justice”– do you think it is not a good idea? Have you ever been involved with it? Speak up! Let’s hear your stories, your viewpoint!
The St. Dismas Guild in San Diego has for decades sent to prisoners newsletters, personal responses, bibles, catechisms, published prisoner testimonies in the newsletter, given the Bread of Life Bible Study. These works of mercy to “visit the imprisoned” in the ways that one can are bringing the love of Jesus to those who are behind bars, actually a forerunner of Restorative Justice Ministries in dioceses. Bless you children and others who reach out as Jesus taught us to do.
This is a good way to teach children how to follow our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 25 and do the corporal works of mercy. They are (figuratively) visiting those in prison and encouraging them. The hope of the resurrection and God’s mercy should give all of us hope.
To the thumb downers to what I posted, would you mind sharing why?
I am sincerely interested. Thank you.
Deacon Craig — I’m not exactly sure what the objection is, but it might be that the school children were doing the letter-writing. I can understand why many parents would want to disassociate their children from any seeming contact with the incarcerated, however far removed. I have mixed thoughts on that; however, an alternative would be to have the children perform spiritual works of mercy for the prisoners instead.
That’s possible and you make a good point. I certainly understand a parent’s concern for one’s children. Yet, when my wife and I send Easter cards or other greetings to prisoners or their children via Prison Fellowship, we are always instructed to sign only a first name and no other identifying information. Of course, visiting those in prison should be left to adults, as my late father-in-law, Deacon Lawrence, did regularly.
Saint Dismas who repented right on the Cross who told Jesus basically that he was guilty but that Jesus was innocent. Let pray and hope that all these prisoners have their Saint Dismas moment at the foot of their Cross. Pray! Pray! Pray! Thank you Father Richard Perozich for mentioning this wonderful Saint in your post today and telling us about the Saint Dimas Guild in San Diego.
Children should not be writing to prisoners.