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Join Us for the online Book Launch of  ‘Unheard Voices’

Please join us for the online book launch of ‘Unheard Voices – Reflections of a Prison Chaplain’  by Imelda Wickham, PBVM (Published by Messenger Publications).

..accessible and pastoral, the book represents a clear call for the beginning of something like a prison abolitionist movement
in Ireland.’ 

Working Notes, Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice

 

In Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain, author Imelda Wickham throws down the gauntlet and challenges us to listen to the voices of the incarcerated.  Imelda challenges us to both literally and metaphorically to ‘pull down the walls’ in the design of our societal punishment system, calling for one of restorative justice. Wickham argues that true justice lies in healing for all involved in criminal behaviour, including victim, perpetrator and society.

Join us for an Online Book Launch at 7.00 pm on Wednesday, 13th October 2021

Special Guests

Mary Hanrahan PBVM 
Provincial Leader, Presentation Sisters

Pat Doyle 
CEO, Peter McVerry Trust 
To register for the launch, please email Carolanne Henry, Messenger Publications:
c.henry@messenger.ie

See www.messenger.ie

See also MailChimp Launch Information – HERE

‘Unheard Voices’

Reflections of a prison chaplain

“In today’s world we all struggle with issues of justice and at times are inclined to feel that there is very little evidence of any real justice to be found. As a congregation our Constitution calls us to challenge unjust systems. So for any of us working for justice is not an optional extra but a constitutive element of who we are as Presentation people. For me, it has been ‘a call within a call’, because as prison chaplain I am also called to challenge unjust systems, to be a voice for the voiceless, and promote the principles and practices of restorative justice”.

(Sr. Imelda Wickham in an interview in 2019 for our Province Magazine).

Imelda Wickham is a Presentation Sister and a former provincial of the congregation. She was a prison chaplain for twenty years and held the role of National Coordinator of Prison Chaplains for three years. She is currently involved in establishing a support service for the families of people in prison called New Directions – Supporting Families of People in Prison.

Imelda’s book ‘Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain’ (Messenger Publications) provides readers with a brief human insight into life behind bars in penal institutions. In its pages Sr. Imelda Wickham, pbvm challenges the use of prisons to deal with addictions, mental health issues and homelessness, arguing that true justice lies in healing for all involved in criminal behaviour, including victim, perpetrator and society. Her reflections on prisoners’ stories also paints a picture of what life can be like in a prison cell.

In his foreword to the book, Fr Peter McVerry SJ states:

“Prison chaplains have an independence that allows them to speak the truth as they see it. Imelda has always used this independence to give prisoners a voice and this is what kept her working in a system which left her deeply troubled and still does.

Imelda knows intimately the routine and language of prison life and her love of the ‘wit and banter’ within the prison walls is palpable and makes this book an enjoyable read.

Her years working in the prison system have taught her that there must be another way: a better way of working not only with offenders but their families, their victims and the victims’ families.”

An interview with the author

The following text is an extract from an interview by journalist Niamh Horan, with Imelda Wickham, pbvm which was published recently in the Sunday Independent Newspaper ( 25 July 2021).  See How talking to prisoners taught Sister Imelda about humanity – Independent.ie

Today Sr. Imelda is in the sunshine of her Dublin home a she recalls tow decades of life in prison cells, giving hope and comfort to murderers, rapists, sex offenders, thieves and those on the edge of society.  She has had to comfort inmates on their first night inside and break the news when family members have died.

Sr. Imelda decided to write a book when the pandemic hit and she could no longer visit the prisoners.  She wants to start a national conversation  to explore “new and creative ways “ to approach criminal justice. Her main aim is to replace the current ‘retributive’ system which focuses on punishing the offense, to a ‘restorative’ justice system where the prisoner takes full responsibility, seeks reconciliation and makes restitution within the community.

UK research show that restorative justice reduces the frequency of offending by 14 percent. This also leads to significant cost savings for the criminal justice system. Sr. Imelda believes that by helping perpetrators we will help the victims and there will be less crime in society.

“In prison, I have seen humanity at the rawest.  That gets you in touch with your own humanity.  The prison was my life. I saw the resilience of the human spirit, how they can still survive after losing everything.  Their goodness never gets lost in the darkness”.

See also an input given by Imelda on restorative justice at Rubicon 2016, a culture and faith think tank in Dublin, Ireland,  filmed live at the Church of Ireland College of Education. https://youtu.be/7lWsGRf81A0

Her book is available from 24th July 2021 from Messenger Publications —See Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain (messenger.ie)

See also Irish Jesuits – Book Review

Reflections on the Unheard Voices of Prisoners

Book Review by Dr. Kevin Hargaden, Director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice, 6th August 2021 (see News – Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Ireland (jcfj.ie)

Part of the text of this review is reproduced here.

Imelda Wickham is a Presentation Sister whose work is currently based in Clondalkin, west Dublin. Since the 1990s, she has been a significant presence in the life of prisoners in Ireland through her chaplaincy work. Although she is now retired, she retains an active role in the post-release service, TRAIL. Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain honours a promise she made almost a decade ago to her friend, Sr. Imelda Carew to write her reflections on her ministry.

Reflections on the human cost of imprisonment

The book comprises of two sections. Its second half is made up of short, accessible reflections which are artfully written, which cut straight to the human level, the reality of what imprisonment does to people.

The first half of the book is more analytical, introducing the reader to Sr. Wickham’s personal journey and how she has navigated – and been changed by – prison chaplaincy. The opening section makes a provocative but coherent comparison between entering a religious order and crossing the threshold of a prison. She is happy in her vocation and does not equate the situations. But examining how both involve an individual conforming to a long-standing institution is a useful device through which she invites us to empathise with the prisoner. The limitations and challenges of life in a religious order are freely chosen, but the restrictions on the life of prisoners are imposed.

[…]  Throughout this book, there is a profound but easily missed recognition that while the wider world – and all too often the church as well – looks constantly for progress and growth and impact, the Christian vocation calls us to something deeper. The chaplain is primarily committed to presence.

[…]  The view of chaplaincy presented in this book is threefold. The chaplain is called to stand prophetically for justice, to be an advocate for those imprisoned, and to “promote the principles and practices of restorative justice” (p. 23). It is fair to say that even though there are a few initiatives here and there, restorative justice is not at the top of the list of priorities for the Irish criminal justice system.

Prison is not working

Perhaps the most depressing section of the book is where Sr Wickham tells the stories of men who committed crimes “in order to get back in” (p. 29). Having been so ravaged by their life experience, enduring wider society was harder than incarceration. There are many things to reflect on in that phenomenon, but above all others is the clear fact that if this is how prison functions, prison isn’t working.

While being accessible, funny, and pastoral, the impressive aspect of this book is that it represents a clear call for the beginning of something like a prison abolitionist movement in Ireland.

Early in the book, I read the sentence that has stayed with me longest:

“Is it not time for some prison walls to come down and for society to have the courage and foresight to explore other options to address the issues of crime and punishment?” (p. 13)

We can’t tear down every prison wall. But we can ask probing, honest questions about the system we have in place, make appropriate verdicts on whether they achieve what we hope they will achieve, and exploring alternatives if it is found that they do not.

(The text is an extract from a Review by Dr. Kevin Hargaden, (Director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice ) on ‘Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain’ by Sr. Imelda Wickham, pbvm).

Unheard Voices: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain by Sr. Imelda Wickham is available to purchase from Messenger Publications and in bookshops nationwide.

See also further reviews & articles on relating to Penal Policy and Prison life at https://www.jcfj.ie/research/