GIVE ‘EM HOPE 

When I started this singing/prison ministry in 1990, Glendon Bender’s (Gospel Echoes) advise was short and simple: “Give ‘em hope.”

As we entered London Correctional this month for at least the 50^th time (three times a year x 21 years of ministry, minus a cancelation or two over the years = at least 50 times) I glanced up, as I always do, at the words written on the outside wall above the main entrance to the prison:

“HE WHO ENTERS HERE LEAVES NOT HOPE BEHIND.”

We arrived early, so while we waited in the lobby, I wandered over to the huge bronze plaque on the lobby wall that I had passed at least a hundred times (50 times coming in and 50 times going out) in the last twenty one years.  As I was reading it carefully Chaplain Cahill came out.  He saw me reading it and told me the following story:

In Venice, Italy, the prison sits just across the river from the judgement house (courthouse).  When a man is sentenced to prison, he is shipped (literally) across the river to the prison.  As he enters the prison he passes under the following words above the door: “HE WHO ENTERS HERE LEAVES HOPE BEHIND.” That was the European pessimism of the 19^th and 20^th century.  A man doesn’t change.  Once a criminal, always a criminal.  There is no redemption.  No reform.  Lock ‘em up and throw the key away.

In direct response to this European pessimism, London (Ohio) Correctional was built in an era of American optimism.  The Reformation based Christianity that helped found this nation held the optimistic Christian belief that anyone can change.  In fact, prisons were not called prisons.  They were called ‘reformatories;’ ‘penitentiaries;’ from the word ‘penance,’ or ‘pensive;’ “to reform,” “to think.”  Prisons were actually what we would call today, a “time out.”  Go think about what you did.  Repent.  Rethink.  It was an alternative to the whippings and beatings of criminals, which began to be looked on as cruel and unusual punishment.

Here is what the huge eight foot by four foot bronze plaque in the London lobby says:

THIS BUILDING WAS COMPLETED IN NINETEEN HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. DONAHEY. IT IS THE NUCLEUS AROUND WHICH WE SHALL BUILD A GREAT INSTITUTION FOR THE SALVAGE OF MEN.  ALWAYS LET THOSE WHO SHALL BE THE MERCIFUL ADMINISTRATORS OF THE GREAT TRUST THAT WE HAVE HERE REMEMBER: THAT THIS IS A PLACE OF FIRM BUT KIND RESTRAINT FOR THOSE WHOSE UNDEVELOPED MORAL FACULTIES HAVE LED INTO EVIL WAYS; THAT THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THIS HUMANE INSTITUTION IS A DETERRANT ONE; THAT IT SHALL BE THE WARNING LIGHTHOUSE OF THE BODY POLITIC BUILDED FOR THOSE WHOSE LIFE BARKS DRIFT TOWARD CRIMINAL SHOALS; THAT REFORM, EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION AS OBJECTIVES SHALL BE THE DOMINANT THOUGHT AND THE COMMAND TO ALL OF THOSE TO WHOM WE SHALL COMMIT THE KEEPING. AND WHEN THESE PURPOSES ARE ATTAINED AND THE CONDITIONS MET, LET US SAY TO THE OFFENDERS IN THE LANGUAGE OF ONE WHO LOVED ALL MEN, ‘GO AND SIN NO MORE.’

I can’t imagine this kind of plaque being put in a prison lobby today.  Imagine, quoting Jesus Christ in a state institution!  But they had it right in 1924.  A man can change!  And if the change is to be real, it can only happen through the One who said, “I came to give you life, and to give it more abundantly.”  Although our news media does not have an optimistic bone in its sick body, I believe the average American is still optimistic.  I am optimistic enough to keep proclaiming Christ through song, sermon and hopefully through my life.  If I didn’t believe a man can change, I would be pretty stupid to go into prisons and waste my time singing nice songs and telling Bible stories.  Especially when the weather is beautiful like it was when we walked into London Prison.  And the offering usually averages right close to zero!

But, I am optimistic!  Read the last chapter!  We win!  Jesus is Lord!  A man can change!  “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord.” (Jer. 17:7)  We have reason to ‘not leave hope behind!’