A Quaker Committee on Jails and Justice Newsletter
Periodical profile published 1979

Year Published:  1979   First Published:  1979
Pages:  7  
Inactive Serial
Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX1020

Abstract:  Capital punishment may again be a matter of public debate if P.M. Joe Clark fulfills one of his election promises. The Friends use their newsletter to take another look at capital punishment, and related issues of prisons.

The newsletter argues that capital punishment denies the brotherhood of man, and our responsibility to one another. The practice of capital punishment denies human beings the opportunity for growth, and the experince of forgiveness. One conclusion drawn is that since individuals are not allowed to commit mujrder, to kill, then the state should also be denied this privilage.

The Quakers also see the present prison system as a destructive force. The early penitentiaries established by the Quakers were meant for the reform of criminals, not the denial of their basic rights. Prisons are often as wrong as capital punishment.

The Friends ask for sensitivity to prisoners as human beings, exposing those situations which are suppresive. The Friends have prison abolition as a long term goal, and advise others of like minds to avoid activities that will reinforce the prison system.

Subject Headings

• Criminal Justice System
• Prisoners
• Prisons