National UMC summit spotlights mass incarceration, redemption
A libation service is performed in honor of the late Marcellus Williams during the final day of the biennial National Summit on Mass Incarceration and Social Justice on October 5 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jim Patterson, UM News)
More than 50 participants from six annual conferences in the United Methodist Church convened earlier this month to network and learn about the issues around mass incarceration at the biennial National Summit on Mass Incarceration and Social Justice in Kansas City, Missouri.
At the summit—organized by the UMC’s Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century and other UM ministries—participants heard from people who are frustrated by the US justice system, especially its emphasis on imprisonment as the answer to crime.
“The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world,” the American Civil Liberties Union reports. “Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime.”
