Aikya on supporting ex-prisoners

[Guest guest]

Dear Linda,

 

Supporting ex-prisoners has, of course, come up in discussions with

Themba and I. As far as Circle of Love Inside is concerned, if the

prisoner wants continued letter and other support right now, we

continue contact with them. They might move to the Circle of Love

side of the aisle but at present, they do not.

 

We still write to Benjamin Booker who was released from the county

jail in Rockford, IL on probation. Benjamin, on his own accord,

wrote to another brother still in jail to support him as he faced

trial.

 

We will continue to write to Patricia Carman when she is released

from prison in Texas. You know Patricia's story. Her daughter died

choking on food and Patricia and her husband have been in jail for

12 years, having been erroneously convicted of murdering the child.

Patricia is a wonderfully mature woman who must have burned off a

lot of karma over these years. She has volunteered to write to

prisoners on her release and visit any in New York State where she

hopes to be as soon as possible. I'm trying to identify some folks

in New York for us to write so they'll be all ready for her. Some

people are helping.

 

Themba, Sweta and I had also talked about a half-way house with

heavy Amma flavor for ex-cons and people in alcohol and drug

addiction recovery. Sweta and I recently got excited about trying

to follow the Delancey Street model which provides education---at

least GED certification, job training in their businesses, and job

experience, as well as counselling and addiction recovery support.

We'd add to that, yoga, meditation, singing bhajans, and learning

about Amma's example of unconditional love and humanitarian

service.

 

That project is a few years in the future. Anybody reading this who

gets excited about hte project, please write to me privately. I'd

love to find people who would love to help create this.

 

Sometimes I'm amazed that Circle of Love Inside has only been active

since last November.

 

In Amma's love,

Aikya

 

Ammachi, nierika@a... wrote:

>

> anatol wrote:

>

> I am

> wondering if the local Rotary Clubs in USA offer the kind of aid

> that Themba and others in similar situations require?

> Is anyone familiar with the local Rotary Clubs in USA?

>

>

>

> Dear anatol ~ In my last job, our organization worked closely with

Rotary

> International. The project was to immunize children on time

following a measles

> outbreak in the US where a number of children died (should never

have

> happened). Generally, the organization picks one cause a year to

devote its

> attention to, but I'm not sure about the local Rotary clubs. I

know when I lived in

> Oregon and worked as a consultant for a children's summer arts

camp, we

> approached the Rotary for support, and they did donate some

money. So I guess if

> one wanted to initiate a outside prisoner support project with

the Rotary, the

> best first step would be to contact the local Rotary club. The

one caveat is

> that the local Rotarys generally only support programs that are

in their own

> geographic area, so in the case of Themba, someone would have to

approach the

> Rotary Club there. If they are interested, they will ask someone

to come and

> give a presentation, which, I guess, would be a presentation on

the whole

> COL project and how the project is still trying to offer support

to prisoners

> after they have been released.

>

> This comment to Aikya ~ Aikya, this support of prisoners after

their release

> has come up several times now, and you did such a terrific job of

developing

> guidelines for writing people in prison ... now perhaps we need

some

> guidelines on what kind of continued support is appropriate after

a person has been

> released to society. This can be very challenging because they

are basically

> thrown back into the sea with very little resources to count on.

This is one

> of the reasons for the revolving prison door, where released

inmates end up

> back in prison. Just a thought, but the program is continuing to

evolve.

>

> Jai Ma ~ Linda

>

>

>