Whereas, penal policies in recent decades have increasingly promoted harsher sentences, attempting to "manage the criminally dangerous... through extended incarceration"[4] thus creating a demand for more and more prisons, making imprisonment the primary method of dealing with crime; and 

Whereas, the United States, and its several states and local communities, have an economic reliance on the existence of prisons, developing a "prison-industrial complex" [5] so that, in a sense, the United States has become economically and culturally captive to its own penal system; and

Whereas, African Americans and Hispanics are imprisoned at an exceptionally disproportionate rate[6], and the American criminal justice system is racially and economically biased against people of color and lower economic levels and, in many ways, is patently unjust; and

Whereas, it is our moral responsibility to challenge the injustices that bring about a disparity of sentencing and incarceration of African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities; and 

Whereas, a recent recidivism study has shown that two-thirds of released prisoners were re-arrested for a new crime within three years of release[7] so that the United States has a prison system not of "correctional facilities" but "penal institutions," whose business is less rehabilitation of inmates than their punishment, thus ill-preparing released prisoners for return to society; and ; and  

Whereas, "we are called by God to speak out about critical matters of humanity, justice, and spiritual integrity,"[8] and, as followers of Jesus, we are compelled to "proclaim deliverance to the captives"[9] and reach out in compassion to all concerned as we would to Jesus himself[10]; now therefore, be it

Resolved that we, the Albany Confessing Clergy:

1. Recommend that the Presbytery of Albany call upon our legislators in the New York State Assembly and Senate to engage in review and reform of the penal system, from sentencing to incarceration to parole and release, in order to seek restorative justice rather than punishment; and that the Presbytery of Albany communicate this resolution to Legislators serving districts in and around the Capital District; and 
   
2. Recommend that the Presbytery of Albany urge the sessions of its constituent churches to prayerfully consider ministries to inmates of nearby prisons, inmates' families, and correctional personnel; and 
   
3. Recommend that the Presbytery of Albany communicate this resolution to other presbyteries in New York State, to the Synod of the Northeast, to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and to other ecumenical and inter-faith bodies within the presbytery's bounds.