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Prayer

For those of us whose apostolate is within the world, the prayerful power and contemplative intercessions of the religious has our back, for they are a mighty arm of the Church and their prayer is one of the sharpest swords of the Word, now as it was centuries ago, when St. Teresa of Avila wrote these words: "I think we should act as people do when, in time of war, the enemy has overrun the country and the king finds himself hard pressed. He retires into a strongly fortified town from whence he sometimes makes a sortie. The small company with him in the citadel, being picked men, are better than a large army of cowardly soldiers; thus they often come off victors, they are not vanquished for there is no traitor in their ranks and famine alone can conquer them. No famine can force us to surrender--it may kill us--it cannot vanquish us! But why have I told you this? To teach you, my sisters, that we must ask God to grant that, of all the good Christians in this fort, none may desert to the enemy, that no traitor may be found here, and that the captains of this castle, or city--that is, the preachers and theologians--may be proficient in the way of our Lord. Since most of these are religious, you must pray that they may advance in perfection and may follow their vocation more perfectly. This is very necessary, for, as I said, it is the arm of the Church and not of the State which much defend us now. We, being women, can fight for our King in neither way: Let us, then, strive so to live that our prayers may avail to help these servants of God who have laboured hard to arm themselves with learning and virtue with which to help their Sovereign." The Way of Perfection, [1565]. (1997). Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers. (pp. 16-17)

With Peter, to Christ, through Mary, for the greater glory of God

Lampstand Program Model Summary

Traditional rehabilitation programs operate primarily from a service-based approach and though having access to some reformative social development tools -- employment, education, counseling, etc. -- certainly plays a role in an individual becoming a productive and successful member of society; it plays a minor role in criminal transformation.

Deciding to leave the criminal world and become a member of the communal society is primarily an internal individual decision based on discovering reasons to do so that are powerful enough to trump those for staying within the criminal world, and it is our contention that this generally only happens through a close relation with another reformed criminal who helps guide the penitential criminal into the communal world; or it can happen through a very fortuitous set of circumstances, usually centered around education, that provide the environment within which the penitential criminal discovers, on his own, the way out of the criminal world and into the communal.

The Lampstand model is built on the truth of Christ as Logos and Caritas, the Church as the Bride of Christ, the finding of the lost as that which causes angels to sing in heaven, and the support one transformed criminal can expect in his work to transform others.

The Lampstand program is designed to work with 60 - 70 released criminals annually, be staffed by one transformed criminal --a deep knowledge leader--who: 1) has been involved in the criminal world for at least ten years, 2) has spent at least five years in a maximum security prison, 3) has been out of prison for ten years, 4) has acquired a masters degree in non-profit management, organizational development, business administration, or a related field, 5) has become educated about Catholic social teaching, 6) is married, 7) Catholic, and, 8) maintains a daily practice involving mass, praying the rosary, study and scriptural reading.

The essence of criminal reformation is a result of the penitential criminal making an internal decision to become a member of the communal world, and the Lampstand program builds on that potential with the ability of the transformed criminal to develop an authentic relationship with recently released criminals to help begin the process of coming to that internal decision.

Annual program funding will be supplied in two ways; core operating funding ($55,000) will come from either government or the Catholic Church, with additional funds ($15,000) raised philanthropically, which equates to program costs of approximately $1,000 per client per year.

Clients will come from the state correctional system through a working relationship established between the Executive Director (ED) and the state correctional leadership, with the ED having full authority in the selection of clients.

Initial interviews will be conducted within the prison for clients releasing to the program area and the ED will pick up each client either at the prison gates or the bus or train station.

The ED will, because of his previous maximum security prison time, criminal world involvement, and successful reentry, be able to connect with the client at a level of professional friendship not accessible to the traditional rehabilitation professional; and it is in the trust and honesty established through this relationship that the very dangerous and very difficult work of criminal reformation will begin and be sustained.

This is the heart of the program, the essential mission fulfillment, and by being mentor and friend 24/7, the ED will address one of the most serious difficulties in reentry -- the justified suspicion from the community, who can either help or hinder the process of reentry by either accepting a criminal's reformation or not -- and many criminals trying to change their lives can become lost again as a result of the community rejection, providing the criminal (whose commitment to reformation after release from years submerged within the criminal/carceral world, is, at best, shallow) an easy and honorable out to the difficult work of reform.

The ED will be available to work with clients at any time and will establish relationships with local resources needed by clients, and his work will essentially be that of a friend, an educated and skilled friend who has knowledge of what resources are available, but mostly, of the internal dynamics of the criminal world from which the criminal is trying to extricate himself, and of the deep satisfaction and joy of the communal world being reached for.

A complete program model design, with a three year strategic plan, and detailed job description of the ED is available to Lampstand members as separate publications and is included in the first Lampstand book: The Criminal's Search for God: Criminal Transformation, Catholic Social Teaching, Deep Knowledge Leadership, and Communal Reentry.