Friends celebrate landmark prison Meetings
Forty years of Meetings for Worship at the Auburn Correction Facility in New York state have just been marked
A group of American Quakers has just marked forty years of Meetings for Worship at the Auburn Correction Facility in New York state. The Meetings, which were the first in the state prison system, began in 1974. They started at the request of prisoners who had met Quakers already involved in the prison’s Alternatives to Violence Programme (AVP).
Before 1974 no New York State prisoners considered themselves Quakers. Although figures are not available today, the Quakers involved at Auburn estimate that some 225 inmates attend Meetings for Worship in eleven of the state’s prisons. These include Attica, Green Haven and Sing Sing.
More than twenty inmates regularly attend the silent Meeting for Worship at Auburn.
The anniversary celebration took place on 9 June. Worship was followed by brunch and the opportunity to share stories, ‘one decade at a time’. Among the attendees were five Friends who had taken part in the first Meetings in the 1970s.
The Friend spoke to Jill McLellan, who has been attending the weekly Meeting in Auburn since 1996, and is also involved in AVP.
She described what Friends gain from the arrangement: ‘The benefits to all of us are a greater connection to a part of the world what we might not otherwise see, noticing the growth that occurs within all of us from spending time together.’
She added: ‘We have forged connections that often continue when an inmate is transferred to another facility and when he is released.’
Comments
This is very encouraging. The Alternatives to Violence (Kenya) Trust is currently holding AVP workshops in the Kamiti prison in Nairobi. The reception by staff and inmates has been very positive.
By Kenya Quaker on 20th June 2014 - 6:53
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