By A.M. Kelley
Catholic Herald
Parishes reach out to inmates in local jails
SUPERIOR -- What's a nice woman like Eileen Bosshart doing in the Vilas County jail? The 73-year-old has nine children, 17 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and has been a foster mother to countless others.
She lives in Conover just a few miles from Michigan's Upper Peninsula border but her good heart often takes her to jail. Bosshart's parish, St. Peter the Fisherman in Eagle River, has a jail ministry program and she's one of its volunteers.
It is not a popular ministry. The jail team has only six volunteers: pastor Fr. Robert Koszarek and five women. Bosshart can't say why more people aren't interested in the work.
"Maybe it's a worry about safety," she said. "I don't know. There are absolutely no safety problems. It's super secure. We've never had a problem."
Each Friday afternoon three from the jail ministry team hold a simple service for inmates. They keep it ecumenical so no faiths are excluded and read Gospels, pray, sing, meditate, lead discussions and bring home-baked treats for a social gathering afterwards.
"We don't preach at them," Bosshart said. "We just share that time and pray with them. There's no counseling, just a discussion about the readings."
The jail houses 113 men and women. A maximum of 30 inmates may attend the prayer service at one time and a separate service is held for the women.
"You get to know a little bit about them," she said. "It's not just a group of strangers every week. I shouldn't say it, but sometimes I wish they could stay. But there's a constant flux -- coming and going."
Bosshart's involvement in jail ministry dates back to 1978. She was living in Illinois at the time and a newspaper article caught her attention.
"A young man was arrested," she said. "He was charged with murder and sent to the Cook County jail. In jail someone stomped on his fingers and broke his fingers."
It upset her so much that she sent a letter of protest to the editor of the newspaper.
"If someone has to go to jail they should be in a secured setting," she wrote.
But Bosshart just didn't write, she took action. At an Illinois youth detention facility she started a values clarification discussion group and ran it for 12 years. And when she learned about a new adult education program at the Cook County jail she signed on as a volunteer.
"It sounded so positive," she said. "Rather than complain and write letters to the editor I tutored inmates."
She went from tutoring inmates to working with death row prisoners. One was a certified schizophrenic. Bosshart testified at his clemency hearing along with psychiatrists but the petition was denied.
"I met with him for 16 years until he was executed," she said. "And with another one for 13 years."
She still works with two death row inmates through the mail -- one in Florida and one in Arizona. She also writes to a mentally ill prisoner in Washington.
Now with more than 25 years experience in jail ministry Bosshart has definite ideas about her work. For instance, she gets to know a prisoner before learning his personal history.
"I don't want to know why they're in (jail)," she said. "If you go with preconceived ideas it's going to color the way you relate to them."
There are other jail ministry programs in the Superior Diocese and each is a little different.
Sr. Bernadette Kalscheur, SSSF, has worked in jail ministry at St. Patrick Parish in Hudson for more than 12 years. Twice a month she and a team of volunteers visit the St. Croix County Jail and study Scripture with inmates.
Of the jail's 140 inmates, 15 to 20 men attend the study groups, and in a separate group, about 6 or 7 women.
"I'm glad we started it," Kalscheur said. "It gives us an opening to the jail and the Scriptures help (the inmates) realize they have to change their lives."
Experienced as parish leaders, the St. Patrick volunteers are also required to attend an orientation at the jail before they can participate in the ministry program. Volunteers learn not to give out their phone numbers or addresses, and how to get help fast if there's any trouble during a study session.
Kalscheur said she had to call for backup once when a few women in a mixed group of inmates started a row. The sexes are separated now but women were allowed to attend study sessions with men in the past because there were too few women incarcerated for a group of their own. Times have changed and the female population has grown in jails around the state.
Besides the study groups, the ministry volunteers see to it that the children of inmates receive presents at Christmas and Kalscheur occasionally visits one parishioner who is incarcerated at a correctional institution for women in Fond du Lac, Wis.
Deacon Michael Cullen of St. Joseph Parish in Barron has just begun to reach out to inmates at the nearby Barron County Jail.
"There is a great need," he said. "We can be part of their rehabilitation. I have a heart for it."
Barron's jail has an average daily population of 95 prisoners.
In New Richmond, Immaculate Conception parishioners work with the St. Croix Correctional Center in a totally different way. They bring inmates to the church. Trained volunteer drivers pick up prisoners for Sunday Mass. There is also a program at the center that allows certain inmates to work at the church under the supervision of Mike Bernd who is in charge of church maintenance.
"I usually have one or two guys every day of the week," Bernd said.
It's called the Challenge Incarceration Program and participants released to work at the church are never those convicted of violent crimes.
Fr. John Gerritts of Nativity of Our Lord said his Rhinelander parish has a well-established prison ministry program for the inmates of the Oneida County Jail.
The volunteers visit the jail every Sunday morning and hold two services, one in a high security unit and another in minimum security unit. Their services include Gospel readings and Communion.
"It's a team effort," Gerritts said. "About three very dedicated people participate. It would be great to get more. It's a huge commitment but they've found it to be enriching personally."
Inmates in Wisconsin jails
The Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance has compiled the following statistics for adult inmates of Wisconsin jails:
n In 2002 the average daily population in Wisconsin jails was 13,593.
n 83.1 percent of these inmates were male, however female admissions into Wisconsin county jails have increased 111.3 percent from1992 to 2002 and continues to rise.
n 3,653 persons were employed in jails in 2002.
n The average length of stay in a Wisconsin jail was 26.6 days in 2002, an increase of nine percent from the previous year.s
n For every 15.5 adults in the state in 2003 there was one jail admission.
Jails are locally-operated and confine persons before and after adjudication. Stays are usually one year or less. There are 72 counties in Wisconsin and 81 jail facilities.
Prisons are state or federal institutions and generally house felons who are incarcerated more than one year. Wisconsin has 20 prisons and 16 smaller correctional centers that contain about 22,000 inmates and employ more than 9,000 people. Combined with those on probation or parole there are a total of 101,800 adults under correctional supervision in Wisconsin.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006