Really is it true?? I would like to see you free to carry out your ambitions. I find myself curious about you more and more. I often wonder if you will resemble the boy I once knew who was sweet, the man who refused to be an adult and I learned to despise or something else all together. I wonder what you would say to my children, would you try to take the place of the man who has been their "daddy" in your absence? Admittedly I'm fearful of your release due to all my unanswered questions. I don't know how this would affect my children. Please don't think I wish you pain because I don't. All these years I've healed at your expense knowing I wouldn't have to face the one who broke me. Even now I still struggle dispite my cozy life I've settled into. Johnny, you carved your name in my heart as if I were an old oak tree. I may no longer belong in your forest but you will always remain as my scar.
I just finished reading your article entitled "A Mindful Approach to Prison Reform". Consider my mind opened. It was a truly insightful article, and your ideas on how to better rehabilitate prisoners are very well-thought-out.
I think you have pinpointed the problem in our criminal justice system today, which is the fact that we spend far too much time worrying about getting offenders into prison, and very little time at all thinking about what happens to them when they get out. People who have, as you say, been treated like "rabid animals" will have an incredibly hard time becoming a part of society outside prison again.
I must admit that I found myself a little doubtful about how much a ten day intensive meditation retreat would really help people who have (perhaps for more than twenty years) been trapped in the current prison system, and confined like animals... But I did some more research on The Dhamma Brothers, and I was shocked that I had never heard about it before. The program really does seem to work, and most importantly, work WELL. A program with such beneficial results should, I think, be the norm in prisons all over the US. Reading through some of the letters of prisoners who had undergone the program, I was absolutely astounded at the results that it seems to have. Here's one quote from Willie Carroll that particularly struck me:
"I can now talk to the worse of attitudes and still keep my composure—I can now be human to myself and others. I’m not cured of my lack of knowledge but this experience has allowed me room to grow and to respect my growth."
Thanks for the insightful article, and keep writing -- if anything can get these ideas spread, it's through Between the Bars.
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Love You Always
Lark...
I just finished reading your article entitled "A Mindful Approach to Prison Reform". Consider my mind opened. It was a truly insightful article, and your ideas on how to better rehabilitate prisoners are very well-thought-out.
I think you have pinpointed the problem in our criminal justice system today, which is the fact that we spend far too much time worrying about getting offenders into prison, and very little time at all thinking about what happens to them when they get out. People who have, as you say, been treated like "rabid animals" will have an incredibly hard time becoming a part of society outside prison again.
I must admit that I found myself a little doubtful about how much a ten day intensive meditation retreat would really help people who have (perhaps for more than twenty years) been trapped in the current prison system, and confined like animals...
But I did some more research on The Dhamma Brothers, and I was shocked that I had never heard about it before. The program really does seem to work, and most importantly, work WELL. A program with such beneficial results should, I think, be the norm in prisons all over the US. Reading through some of the letters of prisoners who had undergone the program, I was absolutely astounded at the results that it seems to have. Here's one quote from Willie Carroll that particularly struck me:
"I can now talk to the worse of attitudes and still keep my composure—I can now be human to myself and others. I’m not cured of my lack of knowledge but this experience has allowed me room to grow and to respect my growth."
Thanks for the insightful article, and keep writing -- if anything can get these ideas spread, it's through Between the Bars.
Best wishes,
--C.B.B. (candleships)