Joe Loney
| Year Joined MKLM: 1995 Country: Bolivia City: Cochabamba Focus: Civil & Human Rights Project(s): 1. Prison ministry; 2. Heavenly Justice |
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Project Goal(s): 1. Assist the incarcerated with legal services so they might obtain a more just experience; 2. Assist immigrants to Cochabamba in obtaining official documentation that will allow them access to government benefits
Personal Data
Joe was born and raised in rural Michigan. Before joining MKLM he was an Assistant Public Defender and worked in the City of Detroit handling the trial defense of women and men accused of felonies.
In 1995, Joe joined MKLM and was assigned to Cochabamba, Bolivia. He worked as a teacher and administrative assistant at a school for blind children and youths. Concurrently, he also worked at community legal aid clinics that delivered legal services in civil and criminal matters to indigent persons. He also assisted a parish with the catechism programs.
From 2005 to 2010, Joe served as director of the Mission Services Department of MKLM in Maryknoll, New York, overseeing the recruitment, admissions and training programs.
Joe is married and is the father of two children.
Current Ministry
In late 2010, Joe returned to Cochabamba, Bolivia and he is now involved in two ministries.
More than 2,000 women and men are incarcerated in 6 prisons in Cochabamba. Joe directly works for the Archdiocese of Cochabamba as the director of archdiocesan legal services for the incarcerated, providing the detained women and men with legal advice, education and communication services.
The local public defender's office is understaffed for the number of indigent, detained persons and therefore the system relies on volunteer attorneys who officially represent more than 30% of the indigents. Many of the incarcerated live in distant rural areas and their families cannot routinely visit the jails in the city area. In order to get to their court hearings they must pay for private taxis.
Joe works to provide the incarcerated with a small measure of true justice by giving them a communication service, basic legal orientation, overseeing the work of the criminal defense lawyers. He hopes to help them become better advocates for their own interests.
In Joe's second ministry, he works with the poorest residents of the City of Cochabamba. They live in Kara Kara, a neighborhood of immigrants from rural areas that is also home to the city’s trash dump. They do not have running water or sewer service. They do not have legal title to the small plots of land where they have very substandard housing, being essentially squatters.
Joe assists these immigrants receiving identification documents so that they can receive government services and benefits such as schooling for their children, government-sponsored health care, and, if they are elderly, old-age pension. Obtaining such identification documents allows the new immigrants to become full actors in the Bolivian civil society.
