In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus unequivocally teaches his followers, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We are invited to bring God’s own unconditional love to both “the just and the unjust”. (Matthew 5:44-45) Taking this to heart, we at Jubilee have reached out to people on Georgia’s death row for over forty years.

We correspond with and visit individuals on death row and also some prisoners whose sentence has been changed on appeal to life without the possibility of parole. On the night of a scheduled execution, we participate in a vigil to pray for all involved in the execution.

These relationships with prisoners have shown us that punishment is the primary purpose of mass incarceration and the death penalty. Yet the Gospel tells us that God loves everyone in their brokenness, including each of us. We are to model that love to prisoners.