What Does it Mean to Be Free? What Judaism Says about Mass Incarceration

Birkot HaShachar

Blessed are you ETERNAL, Master of time and space: ...who made me free. ...who releases the imprisoned. ...who lifts up the bent-over. ...who provides for all my needs. ...who supports a person’s steps. ...who gives strength to the weary.

Rambam Hilchot Teshuvah 1:3

In these days, when the Temple no longer stands and we have no altar of atonement, all we have is teshuvah. Teshuvah atones for all sins. Even if someone was wicked all her days and repented towards the end of her life, we do not remind her of any of her wickedness, as it says, “The wicked will not fail on account of her wickedness, on the day that she repents of her wickedness.” (Ezekiel 33:12)

Maimonides Laws of Repentance 1:10

It is forbidden for a person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. Rather, he should be easily pacified, but hard to anger. When the person who wronged him asks for forgiveness, he should forgive him with a complete heart and a willing spirit. Even if he aggravated and wronged him severely, he should not seek revenge or bear a grudge.

Rambam Hilchot Teshuvah 2:9

Teshuvah and Yom Kippur only atone for sins between a person and God, such as eating something forbidden or engaging in [consensual] illicit sexual relations, and so on. But sins between a person and her fellow— such as injuring another person or cursing at her or stealing from her and so on—she is not forgiven ever until she gives her fellow what she owes her and reconciles with her. Even if she returned the money that she owes, she must appease her and ask her forgiveness. Even if she hurt her fellow only with words, she must soothe [the hurt feelings] and entreat her until she forgives. If [the victim] does not want to forgive, [the perpetrator] should bring a row of three people who are [the victim’s] friends, and they should entreat her and ask her [to forgive]. If she is not appeased, do so a second and a third time. If she still does not wish [to forgive], let her be and go away; she who did not forgive is now the sinner. And if [the victim] was her teacher, she should come and go even a thousand times until she is forgiven.

Some Discussion Questions:

1. How is the perpetrator held accountable in Rambam’s system?

2. In what ways are Rambam’s instructions sensitive to the needs of the victim? In what ways are they not?

3. How can the process of asking forgiveness be painful for the victim? For the perpetrator?

4. In Rambam’s context, the last line is about the honor given a teacher of Torah. Translating it to a contemporary context, what does this injunction teach you about the limits of forgiveness?

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (New York: The New Press, 2012) 94

Once a person has been labeled a felon, he or she is ushered into a parallel universe in which discrimination, stigma, and exclusion are perfectly legal... It does not matter whether you have actually spent time in prison; your second-class citizenship begins the moment you are branded a felon. Most people branded felons, in fact, are not sentenced to prison. As of 2008, there were approximately 2.3 million people in prisons and jails, and a staggering 5.1 million people under “community correctional supervision”—i.e., on probation or parole. . . For drug felons, there is little chance of escape. Barred from public housing by law, discriminated against by private landlords, ineligible for food stamps, forced to “check the box” indicating a felony conviction on employment applications for nearly every job, and denied licenses for a wide range of professions, people whose only crime is drug addiction or possession of a small amount of drugs for recreational use find themselves locked out of the mainstream society and economy—permanently. No wonder, then, that most people labeled felons find their way back into prison. According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study, about 30 percent of released prisoners in its sample were rearrested within six months of release. Within three years, nearly 68 percent were rearrested at least once for a new offense. Only a small minority are rearrested for violent crimes; the vast majority are rearrested for property offenses, drug offenses, and offenses against the public order. Probationers and parolees are at increased risk of arrest because their lives are governed by additional rules that do not apply to everyone else. Myriad restrictions on their travel and behavior (such as a prohibition on associating with other felons), as well as various requirements of probation and parole (such as paying fines and meeting with probation officers), create opportunities for arrest. . . About as many people were returned to prison for parole violations in 2000 as were admitted to prison in 1980 for all reasons. . . If you fail, after being released from prison with a criminal record—your personal badge of inferiority—to remain drug free, or if you fail to get a job against all the odds, or if you get depressed and miss an appointment with your parole officer (or if you cannot afford the bus fare to take you there), you can be sent right back to prison.

Does a Prison Cell Need a Mezuzah?

1. Rabbi Isaac Jacob Weiss, Minchat Yitzchak (Poland/Israel, 1902-1989) says:

(Referring to discussion in Birkei Yosef [Haim David Azulai, Jerusalem 1724-1806]) Beit Hillel wrote that a prison is exempt from mezuzah because it is not an honorable place. And the Birkei Yosef rejected this reason, and wrote also that it’s exempt, that even though people stay there steadily for months, and even though there is no danger or disgrace there, since these places are made to be temporary dwellings, and not permanent ones, and therefore are like a house built on a ship.

2. R. Ben Zion Meir Chai Uzziel, Piskei Uzziel B’she’elot haZman 30 (Palestine/Israel 1880- 1953) says:

In my opinion, it seems that there is no debate (about whether there should be mezuzot in Israeli prisons). For even if the prisoners are exempt from mezuzah for the reasons stated above, the state itself is obligated to put up a mezuzah since it places Jews to dwell in these places.