Plenty of folks have had ambitions to be doctors and lawyers and such, but I’ve never met anyone whose ambition was to be a criminal. Nonetheless 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in prisons and county jails at year-end 2011 with 4,814,200 adults more on probation or parole.
In total, 6,977,700 adults were under correctional supervision in 2011. That doesn’t include some 70,792 juveniles in juvenile detention which pushes it over 7 million.
Hmmm . . . Now those numbers are mind numbing, but imagine how big that number really is when one includes their families and the victims of their crimes.
Egad! That’s too many lives devastated, not to mention the cost of housing all of them, (averaging nearly $30K/year per inmate).
What’s up with all of those folks ending up in correctional institutions? My buddy C.F. Hazlewood former Director of Texas State Prisons gave us an inkling of the reason some of them end up in prison at church on Sunday when he recounted the story of a man that was recently executed.
At the tender age of 7, his father had begun routinely trading him to various men for drugs and alcohol. The guys who bought him took turns raping and sodomizing him while his father got high. When he was nine his father once again attempted to trade him for a bottle of wine to three hobos, but this time was different. This time he tried to resist and his mother helped him. The father became enraged and took a machete and killed the boy’s mother right in front of him by severing her neck.
Imagine the horror that little boy lived through . . . (Epilogue: Prior to his execution, C.F. helped lead him to the Lord and he was wonderfully saved and baptized in a horse trough on death row. His ordeal is now over and he walks on streets of gold. Praise God!)
Death row, prisons, and jails all over the country are filled with men and women with similar stories of dysfunctional families, absentee fathers, and suffering sexual, physical, and mental abuse as a child. It is the one thing that those incarcerated almost always have in common.
African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates, (more than were enslaved during the slavery era). It’s not surprising to learn that nearly 2 in 3 (64%) of African American children live in father-absent homes.
Call me crazy, but I see a correlation there.
This is not merely an African American problem, according to Census data, over 24 million children live apart from their biological fathers. That is 1 out of every 3 children in America. One in three (34%) Hispanic children, and 1 in 4 white children live in father-absent homes.
By comparison, in 1960, only 11% of children lived in father-absent homes.
Duhhh I think we are going in the wrong direction . . .
Grim statistics tell the story better than I. Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
What we are seeing is the breakdown of the American family in this country. Too many families are devoid of a father’s love and millions of children and others suffer.
We did not learn the lesson from Rome that when the family unit breaks down the country is destroyed.
One problem I see is that too many of us just sit on the sidelines and accept this horrible situation. It’s not insurmountable and through faith based efforts can be corrected one family/child at a time, but we need more workers and we need to work together.
If you’d like to get off the couch and do something to help intervene in these poor children’s lives and become a part of strengthening families in your community through faith, I urge you to travel to Orlando in a few weeks and find out how you might be more effective at the Faith and Community Symposium on November 6-7 in Orlando Florida.
My good buddy Bobby Bowden and I will be keynote speakers alongside a plethora of experts who will be conducting workshops at the: “Our Children Our Future: Restoring Hope” conference. It’s open to the public to attend for a small fee and I urge you to come. This year’s Symposium promises to be one the largest gatherings of faith-based and community leaders in Florida.
Serving families in need and at-risk youth is a noble cause that is sure to put a smile on your face, but more importantly put a big one on God’s face. You can learn more and register at http://faithsymposium.com/
One of the worst beatings I ever gave to anyone was a heroin addict that remarked to me that he loved “tender young and innocent” boys. I very nearly killed him for that. I found out much later that he too had been abused as a child and no doubt that is where his sickness was derived.
I’m convinced that punishing perpetrators is not the solution. I’m no bleeding heart and agree that the predators should be taken off the street before they can commit crimes and especially harm little kids, but prevention is what is needed to really solve the problem.
We need God’s church, (body of believers and followers of Christ), to educate fathers to stay home and love and discipline their kids . . .
Bill Glass told me that 72% of inmates’ kids end up incarcerated too. Indeed I went to one prison and a grandfather, his son, and his grandson were all incarcerated in the same prison. What a travesty. Three generations lost.
Pray for this country and its absentee fathers . . . If you love kids this just may be the ministry God has prepared for you. Don’t say “no” to Him.
Proverbs 19:18
Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives . . .
October 16, 2013 – Click here to listen