Letter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Dear Archbishop Tutu,

I am a volunteer Chaplain in California, U.S.A. I am writing because I read your book, No Future Without Justice, and I want to express my deepest gratitude for what you have shared of yourself and your experience.

I work with people in our state’s prison system. As you may know, the U.S. correctional system imprisons more of its citizens than any other on this planet. My state, California, has one of the largest, per capita, correctional populations and worst prison systems. With our extremely high recidivism rate, our correctional system is clearly not ‘correcting’ anything, or anyone. In fact, it is the primary contributor to a systemic de-humanization of large segments of our population.

I am not Christian, so I do not have the support or equivalent consideration within correctional institutions—in fact, clergy representatives and inmates of many non-Christian religions and beliefs routinely have their most basic personal, civil and constitutional rights violated as a matter of course and in keeping with both published and unspoken state correctional department policies. Myself and others persist because one’s personal spiritual practice is often the only refuge and peace in the face of such hopelessness as prison. I am human and those I work with in prison are humans as well. Each person has a heart where there resides Divine Love and connection to all creation. This I know and this I work from. This Love is the property of no single religion or belief, but the foundation of all.

On good days I am thankful that our country has some semblance of freedom of expression and activism… that I have not been jailed, tortured, or killed for my work and my beliefs. On bad days, I see the bare offensive truths for those stuck in the system, as well as the misguided forces that administer it… foster kids tossed from home to home until they join their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers in prison… our state’s flawed and corrupted correctional system… a complete and inhumane failure to address serious drug addiction and mental health issues that continue to feed the system. On bad days, I feel hopeless against a large profitable enterprise at work and I worry for my safety—not at the hands of prison inmates, but with prison staff and correctional officers. It is God, Goddess, Love, Truth—the recognition of one’s essential humanity and worth—that keeps me determined and consistently at work in any positive way I can realize. The pain of the work is at times emotionally intolerable, but not doing something about this growing American population is too frightening of a prospect for me to be at peace with.

Your book gave me hope, strength and useful tools to go forth in my work. I don’t imagine someone such as yourself has the time to read these letters and continue to hear the stories of each and every person world-wide. Nonetheless, I absolutely know you have the heart to extend to each person out there working for restorative justice and recovery of humanity in the world, for you have done so in your writing and sharing of your life. I extend my heart to you and your work in gratitude and purpose. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Malendia Maccree