H eadlines
JCRC Seminar Considers Mass Incarceration
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
AREA JEWISH LEADERS are
urging community members
to take a stance against mass
incarceration, arguing that long
prison sentences and a lack of
resources for those incarcerated
go against Jewish values.

On Oct. 21, the Jewish
Community Relations Council of
the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia hosted “Ending
Mass Incarceration: A Jewish
Perspective,” a webinar addressing
the systemic shortcomings of the
criminal justice system.

A handful of Jewish lawyers,
activists and previously incarcer-
ated individuals, moderated by
Jewish criminal defense and civil
rights lawyer Laurie Jubelirer,
agreed that changes need to be
made to the prison system, both
nationally and locally.

The foundation of the
Jewish argument against mass
incarceration is that prisons
do not have a precedent in
the Torah, according to Rabbi
Joshua Runyan, a lawyer with
Montgomery, McCracken,
Walker & Rhoads LLP and
former editor-in-chief of the
Jewish Exponent.

“The idea of having a prison
where we put lots of convicted
criminals inside is not the
ideal,” Runyan said. “That’s
not the world that the Torah
certainly envisioned.”
However, Runyan said that
Jewish sages made exceptions to
the Torah’s lack of commentary
on imprisonment: If someone
posed a threat to the rest of their
community, being separated
from them through incarcera-
tion was permissible.

Today, panelists argued,
prisons serve to degrade, rather
than reform, running counter
to Jewish values, which prohibit
unjust retribution.

“We need to understand that
regardless of the reason they’re
there, or whatever we think the
reason for prisons is, there’s a
baseline of dignity and humanity
that should be afforded to all
humans, period, end of conver-
sation,” said Noah Barth, prison
monitoring director at the
Pennsylvania Prison Society.

Carol Harris-Shapiro,
associate professor of instruc-
tion at Temple University, called
into question the purpose of
prisons in today’s society, saying
that if they were intended as
a place of rehabilitation, they
were failing.

Prisons are supposed to
provide sufficient medical care
and education, preparing those
incarcerated to have a second
chance on the outside. This isn’t
the case, Harris-Shapiro said.

According to the Literacy
More than a place to live,
. 8
OCTOBER 28, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Jewish lawyers, activists and previously-incarcerated individuals,
moderated by Jewish criminal defense and civil rights lawyer Laurie
Jubelirer, conducted JCRC’s “Ending Mass Incarceration: A Jewish
Perspective” webinar. 
Screenshot by Sasha Rogelberg
Project, up to 60% of those
incarcerated cannot read above
a fourth-grade level. Some
incarcerated individuals earn
as little as 25 cents per hour at
their jobs, but have to pay a $5
medical copay.

However, according to
Harris-Shapiro, some believe
that prisons should be a place of
punishment, justifying prisons’
lack of resources. Moreover,
prisons make up a growing
industry that includes janitorial
and maintenance staff, guards,
security and food services.

“Industry revenue has
increased at an annualized rate
of 4.4% to $9.3 billion over the
five years to 2021,” she said.

Because it’s profitable,
prisons have good incentive to
continue mass incarceration.

“If you have prisons for
profit, you want more inmates,
not fewer,” Harris-Shapiro said.

“Recidivism actually allows
you to keep your businesses
flourishing.” Recidivism rates in the U.S.

are high: 66% of those previ-
ously incarcerated are arrested
within three years of their
release; 50% are reincarcerated,
Harris-Shapiro said.

These amount to lots of incar-
cerated people, said Bob Lankin,
attorney and coordinator of the
Jewish Congregation at State
Correctional Institution-Phoenix
in Montgomery County.

“2.1 million people in the
United States and around 77,000
in Pennsylvania” are incarcer-
ated, according to Lankin.

And though Pennsylvania
has no for-profit private
state prisons, they are a large
employer, particularly in rural
areas, where other industries,
such as coal mining, are waning.

Defunding state prisons in
smaller towns, where many
are employed, isn’t a compel-
ling option to those with few
job options, according to Matt
Engler, who was formerly incar-
cerated at SCI-Graterford,
now SCI Phoenix. These jobs
would come at the expense of
reintroducing people who had
potentially committed violent
crimes back into the community.

“Once you go to defund one
of those prisons, a young lady,
or whomever, in that town —
who has really no other source
of income — goes on welfare,”
he said. “That’s a hard sell ...

That’s a huge, huge problem
that we’re up against here.”
With little to be done on an
individual level to improve prison
conditions and the criminal
justice system, panelists called
on community members to
rehumanize those incarcerated.

Jef frey
Abra mow itz,
executive director of Reentry
Services for JEVS Human
Services and
program director of Looking Forward
Philadelphia, who
was formerly incarcerated, felt
See Seminar, Page 23
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