Repairing the Breach: Faith-Based Community Organizing to Dismantle Mass Incarceration

Abstract

Public awareness of the injustices of mass incarceration has grown significantly over the last decade. Many people have learned about mass incarceration in church contexts through book groups, study campaigns, and denominational statements. In recent years, faith-based community organizing (FBCO) networks have increasingly turned their attention to mass incarceration in light of the growing awareness of many Christian individuals, congregations, and denominations. Mass incarceration, however, presents three distinctive challenges to FBCO. First, dismantling mass incarceration requires overtly and conscientiously confronting white supremacy and advancing racial and ethnic equity; faith-based community organizers have avoided this work in the past for fear of dividing their base. Second, streams of Christian theology based in retributivism have provided justifications for increasingly punitive practices and policies, thus contributing to mass incarceration; FBCO networks must construct and uplift alternative theological streams to support alternative practices and policies. Finally, several practices and policies tied to mass incarceration deplete the political power of individuals, families, and communities most deeply impacted by it. Organizing against mass incarceration requires new strategies for building social capital and creating coalitions among groups who have been disenfranchised, marginalized, and undercounted by these practices and policies. Together, these challenges have required FBCO networks to adapt assumptions, strategies, and relationships that had previously been effective in addressing other issues, such as healthcare, employment, education, and transportation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the insights, struggles, and innovations of ISAIAH, a network in Minnesota, as its members work to dismantle mass incarceration and confront its unique challenges.

Participation in community organizing: Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses of impacts on sociopolitical development

“…This is noteworthy because there are limits or ceiling effects for how much civic engagement or psychological empowerment are practically possible. Community organizing has long been identified as a context that is effective at developing civic engagement and sociopolitical development (Christens, 2010;Christens & Speer, 2015;Kirshner & Ginwright, 2012;Levad, 2019), but empirical studies rigorously testing this capacity over time are extremely rare. These findings are unique in their examination of participants over a two-year time period.…”

Resistance, race, and subjectivity in congregation‐based community organizing

“…The process of centering race and racism in the network's analyses and approaches to organizing has been evolving over decades (Wood & Fulton, 2015; Wood, 2002). Historically, FBCO struggled with the integration of an explicit approach to race and racism (Levad, 2019; Warren, 2001; Wood, 2002). In part, race was decentered because it was believed to be de‐collectivizing—the omission of race fueled by “assumptions that [discussions of race and ethnicity] would be ideologically driven and divide the organizing base along racial and ethnic lines” (Levad, 2019).…”

“…Historically, FBCO struggled with the integration of an explicit approach to race and racism (Levad, 2019; Warren, 2001; Wood, 2002). In part, race was decentered because it was believed to be de‐collectivizing—the omission of race fueled by “assumptions that [discussions of race and ethnicity] would be ideologically driven and divide the organizing base along racial and ethnic lines” (Levad, 2019). This sentiment is expressed by former executive director of FIA, Scott Reed, who shares the following about FIA's historical approach to race:

We've long had a history of wanting to place folks who are most impacted or closest to the pain at the center of our work, but we've also long believed up until the last decade that to talk about race was to somehow divide us.

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