As a young adult, I worked with teens who were court ordered into group homes or detention centers. Many of the teens had criminal charges hanging over them or the possibility of a long-term imprisonment ahead. All had substance abuse issues or addictions. Furthermore, the teens often had a parent or care giver who struggled with many of the same personal challenges they did.

Most commonly, the kids shared a life of poverty, abuse, violence, neglect, and family chaos.  But also they shared the need to laugh and play, the need to love and be loved, the need to be safe and appreciated.

We can hide for a time.

Looking back, I know I had much in common with these difficult kids.  That’s why I worked with them and cared about them. Yet, as much as I enjoyed the work, I was even more  deeply challenged by it, and them.  Consider that I was especially challenged by those few kids who were courageous and responsible enough to successfully deal with the pain and suffering in their lives. These kids acknowledged and dealt with personal pain and suffering that I had so far only managed to numb out or turn away from in my own life.

Nevertheless, I could hide my own pain only for a time. I could not stay cut off from it forever. Consequently, I found it necessary to stop working in corrections in the early 1990s because I reached a point where I could no longer hide my own drug and alcohol abuse or avoid dealing with the emotional and social consequences of the trauma I’d personally suffered as a child. Like the kids I worked with, I was asked by the severity of circumstances to deal with the pain in my life.

That was many years ago. Today, after years of therapy and Buddhist practice, and with the support and love of many friends, I’m working with a group of volunteers as we bring weekly meditation and mindfulness training to inmates at the Essex County Corrections Facility in Middleton.

Prison Mindfulness and Meditation Resources

Here’s a link to the Sweeping Heart Zen  page that details this work: sweepingheartzen.org/prison_meditation_mindfulness/

Would you like  to know more about meditation and mindfulness volunteer work behind bars?   Here’s a link to information about the yoga, mindfulness, and meditation work being offered to inmates by the  Prison Mindfulness Institute: prisonmindfulness.org/

The Essex County Corrections Facility Meditation Ministry (ECCFMM) meets at Ascension Memorial Episcopal Church in Ipswich on Wednesday afternoons at 4:00. Please join us if you are interested in getting involved or learning more about our work.

Very best wishes,

Mark