of the Roman Catholic Church

Prison and Detention Ministry provides Mass, bible study, counseling and the administration of the Sacraments for inmates of public institutions.

Updated January 20, 2025

Twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners are in the United States of America, and yet only five percent of the world's population.  In nearly fifty years our prison systems have gone from 200,000 inmates to 1,841,698 inmates as reported by Vera Institute.  You can read their full report here.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, we have executed 1,582 inmates.  As a society capital punishment has been declining, but there is much more work to be accomplished if the death penalty is to permanently cease.  Currently, at the time of this writing, there are 2,244 prisoners on death row.  If you would like more statistical information, you might like this link.

The United Stats Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the statement: Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice on November 15, 2000.  As we look back twenty-five years, how are we doing as a society, a Church, and indiviuals regarding resorative justice?  Click the above link to read this short document.  It addresses both victim and perpetrator.  How do we protect society from those who threaten life, inflict harm, take property, and destroy the bonds of the community?  This was the number one item in the Policy Foundations and Directions section.  What is restorative justice?  Find out!