Gospel justice talking

Sister Helen Prejean says the death penalty epitomizes what’s wrong in the American prison system

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

In her first visit to Hawaii, prominent anti-death penalty activist Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille Helen Prejean, will speak at Chaminade University of Honolulu on March 11.

Speaking schedule As part of the Mackey Marianist Lecture Series, Sister Helen Prejean will give a free public lecture entitled “Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues,” on Sunday, March 11, at 4 p.m. in the Mystical Rose Oratory at Chaminade University of Honolulu. She will also speak to prison ministers, 7-8:30 p.m., March 12, in the Mystical Rose Oratory.

Sister Helen’s first book, Dead Man Walking, about being a spiritual advisor to two death row inmates, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Academy Award winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, focused on two cases of potentially innocent men who received the death penalty.

The Hawaii Catholic Herald phoned Sister Helen in Louisiana on Feb. 22 to talk about her upcoming visit to the islands and her work for prison reform and the abolishment of capital punishment. Here are excerpts from that interview:

Besides abolishment of the death penalty what would be the most needed reform of the U.S. prison system today?

You know, the death penalty kind of epitomizes a lot of what’s wrong in the prison system … It has to do with this underlying myth of punishment and that those who have harmed others, we have to cause them pain. The ultimate punishment, of course, is to imprison people and take their life. But … 2.2 million people have been imprisoned. One in every three young African American men, ages 18-29, is in the prison system. It’s the choice of treating people like disposable human waste and throwing people away and punishing them rather than diverting or dedicating the resources into restoring the social fabric. And for Catholics who work for peace, peacemaking is working for justice, instead of just reacting to violence when it erupts, and then imitating the violence through the death penalty, and then separating people from their families and imprisoning them for longer and longer sentences, even for nonviolent crimes.

Do you think that since 1997, when the Vatican changed the Catholic Catechism to oppose the death penalty, that the general sentiment within the church is now against the death penalty?

Oh, definitely. You can see the change there. There is no substituting for conversion of heart that has to happen by really confronting the Gospel of Jesus in opposition to the cultural thing. Culture in the United States is out of that punishment model. But restorative justice is the other road, the road of life. The pope in ’97 — when the catechism was changed — for the first time put in the death penalty with the other pro-life issues. In St. Louis [during his 1999 visit, Pope John Paul II] said, no to abortion but [also] no to the death penalty, which is cruel and unnecessary. And the bishops now have gotten behind this in the United States and have begun to put the death penalty in along with the other pro-life issues. Here in the United States, the Catholic support for the death penalty has dropped below 50 percent. We’re like the leading moral wedge in this discourse now on the death penalty, and it’s having a huge effect. I’m proud of my fellow Catholics.

We know that Pope John Paul II was opposed to the death penalty. Have you gotten feedback on where Pope Benedict XVI stands on the issue?

You know what the litmus test was? Because debate is still going on among those who want to hold on to the traditional teaching of the church [that capital punishment may be justified in some cases], the litmus test was, of course, the execution of Saddam Hussein. And everybody, from Pope Benedict and any statement coming from the Vatican, was clearly against the execution of Saddam Hussein. I think that pretty much says where we are and where Pope Benedict is as well.

Here in Hawaii we don’t have the death penalty. What would you say Hawaii Catholics should be working for in terms of prison reform?

There’s more than one way of getting the death penalty. Any form of poverty is a form of death penalty. Any lack of health care is a form of death penalty. Immigration issues that block people out and keep them from having a full life. All the issues of justice, education, healthcare, [the lack of which forces people] to struggle against such odds just to survive.

One policy in Hawaii is to send some prisoners to the Mainland because of overcrowded prisons here.

In California … cells built for two have seven in them. I mean, it’s just hugely inhumane. ... Why is this happening? What’s the pattern? It is the politicization of crime. Politicians get points with the people because the people are afraid. And instead of dealing with the root of what causes crime, they just assign these longer sentences. … And exiling people from their families is really a kind of living death, because it removes them and sends them into exile when they send them off to the Mainland. It’s no kind of solution. … We have to stop treating people like waste. If we can recycle plastic bottles and cans, can’t we find a way to recycle people? Then all the money we spend into the system to throw them away, just imagine if it were diverted into dealing with it — kids at risk, kids’ education, job training, healthcare, good housing. Just think what it could be. Community centers. Helping people with drug [problems] instead of throwing them into prison for drugs.

How is your life as a sister balanced with your busy speaking and traveling schedule? Do you ever wish the busyness would go away?

I got my master’s in religious education. Dealing with the death penalty and the Gospel values of Jesus around the death penalty, it’s a massive form of religious education. Not just for Catholics but for the whole country. … It’s a way of witnessing to Gospel values for life. So I see it as very integral to my calling as a nun.

Have you ever been to Hawaii before?

You know, it’s my first time coming. I’ve been to Australia like three times and I’ve never been to Hawaii. I’ve been to Japan, I’ve been to South Korea, I’ve been to Russia. So I’m so excited about coming to Hawaii.

Are you going to do anything for fun while you’re here?

Yes, indeed. You better believe it.

How about beach-wise?

Oh yeah, you know, what I gotta tell you, I call it my God dream. Those big waves that are translucent, that rise up out of the ocean — that’s what I’m fascinated with. In this dream, this wave comes and at first I’m trying to run to get out of its way. And then it comes over me, but I can breathe in the wave. And so I have a deep, deep fascination with those waves. What beach is a good beach to see the big waves on?

The North Shore probably.

Well, that’s where I’m going to be. Not on the wave, on the beach!

What else should our readers know?

I love traveling because when I meet people of different [places] they always teach me something. So I know that my soul is going to be expanded and deepened by meeting the Hawaiian people … by the deep hospitality and welcome of friendliness. I’m really looking forward to this. I can tell you one thing, it’s going to beat being in Moscow in December. (laughing) That was bad timing. This is good timing … I’m a southern girl, I’m really a southern girl, so I love warmth.