“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” – Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
Intergenerational Incarceration is a term used to describe when family members from more than one generation enter the justice system.
Authors, Mark Halsey and Melissa de-Vel-Palumbo authors of the book, ‘Generations Through Prison: Experiences of Intergenerational Incarceration’ stated, “there were second, third, fourth and fifth generations in the prison system.” Manudeep Bhuller, Gordon B. Dahl, et al, authors of, ‘Measuring the Intergenerational Effects of Incarceration’, alluded to research that revealed in the United States, 2.7 million children have a parent behind bars in every given year. Similarly in the European Union, roughly one million children have a parent in prison. In Guyana, there is evidence of intergenerational incarceration but no research was ever conducted to ascertain its magnitude and effect on the parents’ children.
Moreover, Will Dobbie, Gronqvist Hans, et al, authors of, ‘The Intergenerational Effects of Parental Incarceration’, alluded to research data from Sweden which revealed that there is a direct correlation between the incarceration of a parent and a significant increase in teen crime, and a significant decrease in educational attainment and adult employment. The study disclosed that the effects are concentrated among children from the most disadvantaged families, where criminal convictions increased by ten percentage points and employment at age twenty-five, decreased by twenty-nine percentage points. In contrast, there are no detectable effects among children from advantaged families.
The authors concluded that the incarceration of parents with young children may significantly increase the intergenerational persistence of poverty and criminal behaviour, even in affluent countries with extensive social safety nets.
Conversely, all of us were born in the spiritual prison of Sin and Iniquity. Some of us, although we may not be in a physical prison constructed of metal bars and steel cages like the intergenerational families that were incarcerated; may be in a prison of drug and alcohol addiction, a prison of psychological torment as a result of physical and mental abuse, rejection, generational sicknesses and diseases, demonic possessions and so forth. Beloved, we need to break out from these prisons, and we can.
The final prison is in the dungeon of the devil where there is neither a parole system nor clemency of mercy to be entertained, only eternal death and damnation in the fiery pits of hell. Let’s heed the clarion call of salvation from the Lord Jesus Who will break every demonic covenant made by your fore-parents and set you free.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, the devil has created an intergenerational market for those incarcerated in the prison system that guarantees the harvesting of lost souls for hell. In the name of Jesus, we break this generational stronghold and release the fire of the Holy Spirit to consume principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, and rulers of darkness of this world.
We pray that salvation would come to the cell (physical and mental) of every prisoner and their families and set them free, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Read: Genesis 39:21; Psalm 69:33; Ephesians 6:12Bible ReadingGuide: Psalm 85:8-13; Romans 3:9-31; Amos 3; Amos 4
