By Zoe Sandvig|Published Date: June 04, 2009
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Prisoners don't naturally solicit our sympathies, and Pat Nolan knows that. But Nolan, a vice-president of Prison Fellowship, also knows that the kingdom of God, which calls for justice that rolls on like a river, also envisions justice that rolls down our prison system into each cell.
As a former California state representative who used to pride himself on his "tough guy" approach to criminal justice, Nolan, who was later convicted on racketeering charges and served two years in one of the same prisons he was trying to fill, now fights battles most former politicians wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.
In 2003, he headed the charge to pass the Prison Rape Elimination Act, because no one deserves a sentence that includes rape and abuse. For the past few years, he's been urging lawmakers to pass the Second Chance Act, a piece of legislation that will help prisoners move back into society. And this past year Nolan advocated for federal prisoners whose right to exercise their religious beliefs had been jeopardized.
A Restorative Battle
It wasn't insanity or vindictiveness that hauled possibly hundreds of thousands of Christian books out of prison libraries and into warehouses or dumpsters; it was the Standardized Chapel Library Project, a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) mandate ordering all federal prison chapel libraries to limit their titles to a recently approved list.
It all started after 9/11 when public awareness focused on prisons as breeding grounds for terrorist activity. As a result, the Inspector General issued a report in April 2004 cautioning the BOP against hiring Muslim chaplains who might encourage radical thinking in inmates. For three years this warning simmered quietly, but then in early 2007, the BOP took measures to ensure that radicalism wasn't festering in prisons by issuing the Standardized Chapel Library Project, a ban against all literature that might "discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize." The SCLP mandated a list of 150 government-approved titles for all major faith groups, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism included.
Knowing that removing so many Christian books, including all of the training and seminar books that Prison Fellowship provides, would deprive inmates of one of their main sources of spiritual and moral development, Nolan and PFM President Mark Earley wrote a letter to the BOP: They urged officials to revise the policy so that only those books containing religious extremism would be removed. But the BOP wouldn't budge.
Members of several Orthodox Jewish organizations, including the Aleph Institute, a Jewish prison ministry, Sojourners, and the Republican Study Committee also sent letters of protest. Then, on August 21, three inmates from Federal Correctional Institution - Otisville in New York-Moshe Milstein, an orthodox Jew; John Okon, a Protestant Christian; and Douglas Kelly, a convert to Islam-filed a class-action lawsuit against the BOP accusing it of violating their First Amendment rights.
 As the lawsuit gained momentum, Nolan and representatives of the Aleph Institute tried again. In late summer, they met with the Acting Deputy Attorney General to voice complaints about the mandate and urge him to work toward a resolution that could bring all helpful, non-inciting literature back into prison chapel libraries.
Again, they heard "no."
But on October 17, the BOP suddenly switched direction. BOP Director Harley Lappin called Nolan and other representatives of concerned civil rights and faith groups together and announced that the BOP had changed its mind and would return all non-radical books and begin a systematic review of all the materials.
Nolan said he was astonished by Director Lappin's response: "It's the way that government should work but so seldom does."
The meeting began to heal relationships between Prison Fellowship and the other religious and civil rights groups and the BOP.
"It was restorative justice in action," Nolan explained. "Bonds of friendship and trust have developed where there had been suspicion and acrimony."
Surfing on God's Wave
Pat has been excited to watch bonds form over another criminal justice reform still in progress. After several years of fighting for the Second Chance Act, a federal bill aimed at creating and encouraging effective prisoner reentry initiatives, Nolan was thrilled to see congressional leaders rally together across party lines in November 2007 to pass the bill in the House of Representatives.
Nolan admits that legislation helping prisoners reenter society typically won't get anybody reelected, but he is noticing that prison reform is becoming an issue that brings lawmakers together.
"So many issues in the legislature are divisive, but [Second Chance] bring[s] people together and allow[s] them to set aside their differences for a while for the public good."
The reversal of the BOP's ruling and the Second Chance Act passing the House made 2007 an exciting year for Nolan and Justice Fellowship. As 2008 dawns, Nolan continues to watch for others who are willing to engage in the crusade for justice along with him.
"If God truly is in these issues . . . [He] will make it obvious by bringing other people to the fight. We look for the wave that God's already got going and just try to go along with it and that carries us, and frankly has carried us to victories that from my old political point of view would seem impossible."
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