Overview

Lock them up and throw away the key! - a cry we hear often today. Ordinary South Africans have reeled from a ceaseless pandemic of crime - from state looting to violence, fraud and theft, with bodies and homes regularly violated. Those seen as responsible, incarcerated in South Africa's overcrowded prisons, don't get much sympathy. But as Father Babychan Arackathara, a Catholic chaplain to some of the Western Cape's most notorious prisons, shows in this compassionate assessment of his work, even criminals have stories, and crime invariably has roots. Father Babychan listens to those stories and untangles those roots on our behalf, sharing insights into the brokenness of our society and communities - and offering suggestions for fixing them. He reminds us that many behind bars are guilty of no crime other than poverty - and, sadly, innocence doesn't pay bail. Can we move to the ideal of hating the crime, but loving the criminal? Are we able to delve deep into ourselves, to realise that offenders are themselves victims and to engage them in constructive ways? The author draws on a lifetime of ministering to the most unloved to suggest ways of breaking cycles of addiction, trauma and crime - to reach for reconciliation and transformation. He emphasises restorative justice and healing that highlights everyone's responsibility in reducing crime by offering offenders second chances and creating opportunities. Ultimately, he argues, we should do all we can not to shut them out from family, community and society at large. Sometimes it takes a visitor to point out problems at home, and in Father Babychan Arackathara we have received a visitor of deep insight and learning. We would do well to heed his lessons.

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9781928230687

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Father Babychan Arackathara has been working as a chaplain in southern African prisons, mostly in the Western Cape, for nearly 20 years. He represents Southern Africa at the International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care (ICCPPC), an NGO recognised by the UN and a global Catholic chaplains' movement which promotes Mandela Rules and human rights inside prisons. He has a remarkable track record of restorative justice and reintegration interventions in our correctional centres that have brought about healing among offenders, victims and their families. In 2019 he will relocate to work in the prison systems of Texas. Light Through The Bars has been written under the guidance of veteran restorative justice writer David Le Page and renowned South African author and editor Helen Moffett.

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