每个月，我都会试着写信给在这个社区里长大、但如今却在狱中服刑的年青人。我曾见过很多男孩长成青年，然而误入歧途、被告上法庭、在无人辩护的情况下被判入狱数十年。请为监狱中的这些非洲裔美籍男性祷告，特别是为年轻人祷告。我自己正在努力更加认识美国的监狱制度，我想邀请你也这样做。
在过去30年里，在美国监狱里的人数从300,000激增至2百万。百份之25的囚犯是非洲裔美籍人士，但是非洲裔美籍人口实际仅占美国人口的百份之13。Michelle Alexander的著作The New Jim Crow描述了：不分种族肤色的年代里大规模的监禁、并且Bryan Stevenson所提倡的“公义平等运动”引起大众关注一个事实：就是从奴隶制度开始、到Jim Crow事件、到大规模监禁，都是结构性种族主义的后遗症。
给坐牢的人定罪和贬低他们的价值当然比较容易，然而我鼓励你关注一下以上这些资料。我知道我们应该可以做得好一些，而我也深信神很希望我们能变得更好。
主啊，你创造我们，是充满潜质、希望、和美善的存在。社会制度和个人犯罪的不公义败坏了你美好的创造。我们为所有在监狱中的罪人祷告，惟愿我们努力作工、去开创并促进公义的制度实施在地上。阿们。
希伯来书 13:1-3
1你们务要常存弟兄相爱的心。
2不可忘记用爱心接待客旅，因为曾有接待客旅的，不知不觉就接待了天使。
3你们要记念被捆绑的人，好像与他们同受捆绑；也要记念遭苦害的人，想到自己也在肉身之内。
"Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." - Hebrews 13:3
Each month, I try to write letters to young men who grew up in the neighborhood and are now in prison. I have seen lines of boys become young men, make mistakes, and end up in court with no advocate, sentenced to prison for decades. I am asking you to pray for African American men, particularly young ones, in prison. And I want to invite you to learn about the United States prison system, just as I am trying to learn more about it myself.
Over the past three decades, the U.S. prison population has exploded from 300,000 to 2 million. Twenty-five percent of these prisoners are African American, while only 13 percent of the U.S. population is African American. The work of Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness and the work of Bryan Stevenson at Equal Justice Initiative have spotlighted the legacy of structural racism from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration.
It would be easier to judge and write off those who are in prison. But I urge you to check out these resources. I know we can do better, and I believe wholeheartedly that God wants better for us.
Lord, you created us full of potential, promise, and beauty. Corporate and individual sin and injustice corrupt what you have created for good. We pray for all who are in prison, and may we work to create institutions that bring justice. Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳
