Prison Potential

Beyond prisons — YES! Magazine

2011-06-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

Beyond prisons — YES! Magazine
a whole issue devoted to this topic!
Amazing, I'm eager to get reading.

Great examples of potential

2011-06-12T21:23:00.001-07:00

http://atlantapost.com/2011/05/27/beyond-the-bars-8-ex-offenders-whove-made-inspiring-transformations/8/

Shimon Schocken's rides of hope | Video on TED.com

2010-12-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

Shimon Schocken's rides of hope | Video on TED.com

web wanderings

2010-11-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.crimspace.com/

Restorative Circles

2010-09-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

To Dominic Barter: What is your elevator speech for Restorative Circles?

I was born in England. There are no elevators there, only lifts. In lifts we avoid talking. We also avoid eye contact. Everyone knows eye contact is a leading cause of conversation.

However, when I am not in England I enjoy finding short, snappy ways to describe what I do. I like these to be meaningful for the person I'm talking with, so I don't have a 'set speech'. I will usually find a way in that is relevant to a shared experience we have - something the other person has said, the place we're in, some current event I trust they'll know of.

The last time this happened was last night. I knew the person was a biologist and social activist. I mentioned creating an eco-system within which conflict and crime were harvested for greater community resilience and how this was empowering for marginalized groups. She smiled, took an overnight bus and will be at the Facilitator Practice tomorrow in São Paulo.

A video interview with Dominic Barter - Restorative Circles

Daniel Beatty - 'Knock Knock' (Def Jam Poetry)

2010-08-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

3 Great reads

2009-11-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

The Lioness Tale by Diane PendolaThe Lioness Tale, powerful story/fable opening up the prison gates to our discovering of the liberating spirit within each of us. also check out the 12 episodes of Interviews with healers and prison related thinkers lifting up the challenges of the Lioness. Diane has programs for people inside.
http://www.thelionesstale.com/

Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption and One Woman's Fight to Restore Justice to All
Dreams from the Monster Factory tells the true story of Sunny Schwartz's extraordinary work in the criminal justice system and how her profound belief in people's ability to change is transforming the San Francisco jails and the criminals incarcerated there.

True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman what a quick and powerful read. Getting right into the heart of the juvenile justice system and the heart of so many young men. If you have ever wanted to see inside the hearts of youngsters leading a life behind bars, this will satisfy you and disturb you both.

There are links on our face book page: Praying for OUR Prisons. Come and be a "fan" Take up the Call to Prayer...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Praying-for-our-Prisons/

"Anyone Can Be Imprisoned - Anyone Can Find Freedom

2009-11-21T10:33:00.000-08:00

Beginning in 2004, Dr. Dan Booth Cohen led monthly Family Constellation circles for a group of inmates in a Massachusetts prison, many of whom are serving life sentences for murder. His experiences over a 5 year period with this group are described in the newly published book, I Carry Your Heart in My Heart: Family Constellations in Prison (Carl Auer: 2009).
Although the book is about prisoners, it is for anyone who feels trapped by emotions, circumstances, or relationships from which they cannot escape. The stories of Family Constellations in prison and the philosophy of healing that is explored in the book show that peace of mind, reconciliation, and forgiveness are always within reach.

Several of the inmates are incarcerated for upwards of 30 years for murders committed when they were young men living rough lives fueled by alcohol, poverty, and trauma. Despite their decades in prison, many members of the group transformed themselves into wise elders and skilled healers. The Family Constellations restored their dignity, connection to love, and sense of purpose in concrete ways.

It was not only the prisoners who gained these benefits. Word spread to the community about the remarkable healing qualities of these group meetings. Today, the group regularly welcomes outsiders who join the Family Constellation prison group each month. As unlikely as it sounds, the meetings frequently include highly-educated, successful professional women who ask this group of men convicted of murder for help to restore their marriages or find freedom from the bonds of depression.

Dr. Cohen's website where you can buy the book or read other articles is http://hiddensolution.com.

Here is one interview with Dr. Cohen:
http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=40305
and
This interview has a great deal about his prison work:
http://www.soul-guide.com/soultalk/soultalk4.html
on-demand and podcast download.

Let's Forgive

2009-10-19T13:41:00.001-07:00

facebook
Judy Tretheway 1:41pm Oct 19th	Let's Forgive To judytre.prisonpotential@blogger.com Enlarging the future Judy has shared a link to a video with you. To view the video or to reply to the message, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1379560156&k=Z3BU3XWZPXTF6BD1QAWYRPV2UTIB4XZM3QHYK&oid=1163319242153
	If you do not wish to receive this type of email from Facebook in the future, please click here to unsubscribe. Facebook's offices are located at 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304.

IONS Review #63 • March 2003 | Shift In Action

2009-10-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

An article I found of another woman doing wonderful work ... click on the text below to get there:

......work inside a super-maximum penitentiary as a mental health provider, and continue to find the goodness in all of us, even where we least expect to find it. I also find the darkness in those who have the courage to share who they really are. I tell people, "Let's start with the worst of you and go from there." I try to create honesty, intimacy, and connection. The greater vision for HOPE-HOWSE is ,......

IONS Review #63 • March 2003 | Shift In Action

and more of her writings and story at her web site: http://www.hope-howse.org/

2009-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Op-Ed Contributor

The High Cost of Empty Prisons

ROBERT GANGI

Published: October 11, 2009

LAST Wednesday, changes to New York’s notorious Rockefeller drug laws went into effect, allowing judges to shorten the prison terms of some nonviolent offenders. This measure will further reduce New York’s prison population, which has already declined, in the past 10 years, from about 71,600 in 1999 to about 59,300 today. (The state’s crime rate also dropped substantially during that time.)

For the full story

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/opinion/12gangi.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Dancing Rehab!!

2009-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Philippine Prisoners Dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous"

Once again, the prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, where 70 percent of the inmates are convicted of serious crimes like murder, rape and drug trafficking, make maximum-security incarceration look really awesome with another Michael Jackson dance video, this time to "Dangerous":

The prisoners' first Michael Jackson video, choreographed to "Thriller," has received over 30 million views since it was uploaded two years ago.

[NYT: Dance is part of rehabilitation at Philippine prison]

Related News On Huffington Post:

Filipino Inmates Perform 'Dangerous' As Tribute To MJ (VIDEO)

So why are prisoners in the Philippines such excellent dancers? Because dancing is part of their rehabilitation. In July 2007, Filipino inmates performing "Thriller" became...

Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2009

CEBU, Philippines — Six months ago, Crisanto Niere and Wenjiel Resane were just two more inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, serving time for drug trafficking. Today, they are Internet superstars.

2009-07-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a consequences check point article from the Huffington Post:

Prison's Littlest Victims

David C. Fathi | Posted 07.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Congress, Human Rights, Race, Children, Prison, Crime, Politics News

It's long been fashionable for politicians to boast that they're "tough on crime." But by getting tough on crime, the United States has also gotten tough on children.

Read Post

Good Reading

2009-07-17T19:43:00.001-07:00

I just finished a marvelous book!
Dreams from the Monster Factory: A tale of prison, redemption and one woman's fight to restore justice to all. by Sunny Schwartz with David Boodell.

From the epilogue: "I still have dreams as I wander the halls of the jails I've patrolled for a quarter of a century. These prisoners are different form the ones I first met here in the 1980's. they seem more violent, less capable of empathy. but their stories of desperation, of failure, of violence, are the same. so is their potential. Whether we want to admit it or not, our fate is tied to them because, like it or not, they will be released into our communities at some point. we have the tools to help them join us as partners, as allies, as citizens, and not enemies."

Sunny was instrumental in initiating the RSVP program in San Francisco County Jails, a program which gathered up the most violent criminals put them in the same dorm and gave them the tools to help each other heal with fantastic results. Her program brought support to the victums, included the families and addressed everyones pain and failures straight on. Everyone in anyway connected to the prison system will be engaged with her personal as well as professional story written in a page turning way.

This essay by Helen Epstein entitled American's Prisons: Is there hope? reviews Sunny's book and the issues she raises is powerful and a gift to have been published in the NY Times! : http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22741
---
Another good prison related book by a bay area author I read a few years ago: Visiting life : women doing time on the outside by Bridget Kinsella. Here Bridget shared her personal journey, first as a volunteer and later as a wife of a prisoner. She speaks frankly about how difficult it was to deal with the social stigmas of people both outside and inside the prison world as she followed the unlikely path of falling in love with an incarcerated man while telling a very human love story with a difficult ending. Its at our Sacramento Library.

2009-06-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Editorial: Rape in Prison

Published: June 23, 2009

Rape accompanied by savage violence has long been part of prison life. Congress finally confronted this horrendous problem by passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. In addition to bringing attention to a long overlooked problem, the new law created a commission that has put forth a broad set of rape-prevention standards that deserve to become mandatory in correctional agencies throughout the country.

Full editorial in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/opinion/24wed3.html?emc=eta1

Violence prevention at San Quentin

2009-06-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

The SF Chronicle had a great piece on the Violence prevention program at San Quentin On June 13, 2009:

link to the full article: http://insightprisonproject.org/about_us/announcements/?id=27

America's Prisons: Is There Hope? - The New York Review of Books

2009-06-25T15:38:00.001-07:00

America's Prisons: Is There Hope? - The New York Review of Books

Shared via AddThis

freedom to Choose video!!!!

2009-05-31T17:38:00.001-07:00

Freedom to Choose short form from University of Santa Monica on Vimeo.

Cradle to Prison Pipeline

2009-05-31T17:13:00.001-07:00

May 27, 2009

It is always more difficult to fight one's own failings than the power of an adversary.
Jawaharlal Nehru

Marian Wright Edelman's article on the Children's Defense Fund web site, "The Cradle to Prison Pipeline: America’s New Apartheid" opens with...

"Incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid and poor children of color are the fodder. It is time to sound a loud alarm about this threat to American unity and community, act to stop the growing criminalization of children at younger and younger ages, and tackle the unjust treatment of minority youths and adults in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems with urgency and persistence. The failure to act now will reverse the hard-earned racial and social progress for which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many others died and sacrificed. We must all call for investment in all children from birth through their successful transition to adulthood, remembering Frederick Douglass's correct observation that 'it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.'

"So many poor babies in rich America enter the world with multiple strikes against them: born without prenatal care, at low birth weight, and to a teen, poor, and poorly educated single mother and absent father. At crucial points in their development after birth until adulthood, more risks pile on, making a successful transition to productive adulthood significantly less likely and involvement in the criminal justice system significantly more likely. As Black children are more than three times as likely as White children to be poor, and are four times as likely to live in extreme poverty, a poor Black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime and is almost six times as likely as a White boy to be incarcerated for a drug offense."

April 19, 2009 Kobai Scott Whitney

2009-04-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Kobai Scott Whitney, the author of Sitting Inside, a guide to Buddhist Meditation in prison, is coming to town to do a teaching in Old Folsom. We "outsiders" have an opportunity to gather with him on Sunday morning from 9-12 at the YLI (27th and N) So far most of the attendees are other volunteers going into prison and its open to everyone, there is lots of room. Please come and pass the word around...email me for a flyer.

Insight Prison Project

2009-04-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

A fine collection of programs at San Quentin:
http://www.insightprisonproject.org/programs/

2009-04-06T11:03:00.001-07:00

Lets include in our prayers: “Fair Sentencing for Youth Act” Senate Bill (SB) 399, which was proposed by Sen. Leland Yee and is being HUGELY supported by Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org) In a nutshell, SB 399 is a second chance bill that will give CHILDREN sentenced to LIFE in prison WITHOUT the possibility of Parole, an opportunity to go before the parole board and indeed POSSIBLY have a second chance to return home.
Important Dates/Numbers (optional, for those who may want to attend):· Thursday, April 2, 2009 @7PM - (218) 936-4700, the code is #124256: Informational Phone Conference for Families, Friends, and those who want to learn more· Monday, April 13, 2009 – Informational Training Session (Sacramento)· Tuesday, April 14, 2009 – Public Safety Committee hearing where the Bill is being presented (State Capitol)
from an email sent by K. Ayah ShieldsPresident, Board of DirectorsHelping and Healing Families, Inc.PO Box 277346Sacramento, CA 95827-7346Please note new numbers below:916.779.4300, ext. 1213916.779.4301 Fax

NYTimes.com: Reviewing Criminal Justice

2009-04-03T19:42:00.001-07:00

This page was sent to you by: judytre@gmail.com

OPINION March 30, 2009
Editorial: Reviewing Criminal Justice
A bill that would establish a national commission to review America's prison system should be given high priority in Congress.

Parade.com: Why We Must Fix Our Prisons

2009-04-03T19:36:00.001-07:00

This message was sent to you by: judytre@gmail.com Message from sender: Click the following link to read the story, Why We Must Fix Our Prisons If the link is not clickable, please copy and paste it into your browser: http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html

NPR.org - Shrinking State Budgets May Spring Some Inmates : NPR

2009-03-31T07:54:00.001-07:00

Judy thought you would be interested in this story: Shrinking State Budgets May Spring Some Inmates : NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102536945&sc=emaf

This message was included:

In the last Three days, three major national media offerings have called for major prison reform! The chi is flowing now!