Catholic Social Teaching (CST) emphasizes that every human life is sacred and therefore all humans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. This means that people who are in prison should still have dignity even when they are incarcerated. CST also calls on Christians to not discriminate based on race, gender, class, etc, in terms of dignity and respect. Pope Francis in his document Frateli Tutti states "The world exists for everyone because all of us were born with the same dignity. Differences of color, religion, talent, place of birth or residence, and so many others, cannot be used to justify the privileges of some over the rights of all. As a community, we must ensure that every person lives with dignity and has sufficient opportunities for his or her integral development" Here Pope Francis is calling Christians to act upon the injustice of treating people differently based on race and any other traits. In the U.S. criminal justice system, people of color are targeted and imprisoned at a faster rate than white people. These people have just as much of a right to life and dignity as anyone else.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Christians are urged to "put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first." People in poorer neighborhoods, minorities, and people struggling with drugs and addiction are all targeted by the U.S. criminal justice system and are incarcerated faster than other people. Christians are called to work to end that suffering and help others in need. Scripture also emphasizes this theme. In Luke 4 scripture states, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord,” (Luke 4:18-19 NABRE). In this passage, Jesus emphasizes healing and therefore wants freedom for prisoners. This means that we must work to free those who are in prison.