Andy Watts, Professor of Religion, School of Theology and Christian Ministry, Belmont University
Christianity, Mass Incarceration, and Transformative Justice
The last 50 years of institutional punishment, described as Mass Incarceration, have shown that punishment as retribution through incapacitation neither deters
crime, rehabilitates offenders, nor satisfies the offended as declared. Christian practices of restorative
and transformative justice offer alternative models of punishment that place persons in communities, communities in systems, and systems in accountability to human flourishing. We will examine in one short hour the vision of justice in scripture, the history of penal justice in America, and the role of transformative justice in punishment and restoration, as well as our faith-obligated place in them.
Led by Andy Watts, Professor of Religion, School of Theology and Christian Ministry, Belmont University