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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-06
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kGXAdm804
I'm here to speak with you today about pathway to change the jail labyrinth project and documentary this was a collaboration that involved many different disciplines within our local community Hampshire County jail is situated just outside the city of north Hampton is home to approximately two hundred and fifty inmates well I was employed at the jail I had the opportunity to attend a workshop involving the labyrinth
I was so impressed I asked the facilitator if she would come to the jail and do a pilot program for the incarcerated men that I worked with their our program was so successful that we then went on to develop a twelve week curriculum this was a skill based program with topics that included forgiveness moral development mindfulness problem solving and decision making just to name a few
after the lecture held in the classroom at our correctional facility the men were then led in a guided meditation they then walked portable lap rent that we had laid out on the floor at the conclusion of class we discussed options for behavioral changes and ways to implement them into their daily living at one of the workshops the idea of constructing an outdoor lab parent came up
when we approach sheriff Garvey the jail he responded yes if you can get the funding go ahead with the project now you may wonder what a labyrinth is and why we would do a program like this at a correctional facility facility this is the labyrinth on the coast of Maine and they are an ancient and sacred symbol over four thousand years old they're not affiliated with
any particular religion the labyrinth has one entrance it follows a circuitous path leading into a center and then back out again I like to refer to it as a moving meditation the benefits of walking a labyrinth are many it clears the mind revitalizes energy calms the body and reduces stress correctional facilities can be very chaotic places in which to live short periods of serenity as those
experienced on the labyrinth are highly prized as an aside in a small research study that we did we found another benefit of walking the labyrinth not surprisingly it lowers blood pressure and pulse the volunteer crews of incarcerated men did countless hours of manual labor this is early in the project when they're just opening up the field where the labyrinth is going to be a few more
examples of the men working correctional staff also participated in the project operating heavy equipment when it was needed this is supplies being delivered the pathways for our labyrinth which was eighty feet it's very very large labyrinth and the first of its kind in the United States within a correctional facility probably in the world these are bluestone being delivered that were part of the pathways and they
were set in gravel this is done added bonus because we had to do underground piping divert water from the actual labyrinth we had this water feature that sits beside the labyrinth this is one of the members of our local community who came in to work with the man and taught them how to maintain the labyrinth arm all the plantings that are on the left word that
you'll see in further slides were donated by the local community this is sheriff Robert Garvey he is a very pro education and treatment sheriff in two thousand five he was the number one sheriff in the United States is a remarkable man this is him addressing the %HESITATION gas that came to the labyrinth dedication ceremony held at the jail this is done right he's one of the
incarcerated men and you can see many of the other men that worked on the project he is addressing the crowd that came for the dedication and this is the crowd in the law %HESITATION auditorium at the jail giving the man a standing ovation for their work on this project one of the men that participated in the project as a laborer and you can just see the
pride in his face at the accomplishment of completing the labyrinth this particular picture shows on the stark contrast between the razor wire surrounding the correctional facility in the beauty of the labyrinth as one man put it when he walked when I walk the labyrinth and no longer locked up and free now I'd like to share some very very compelling statistics on the state of corrections in
our country today the United States leads the world in the number of people we incarcerate right about six hundred ninety eight people per one hundred thousand the country second behind us is Rwanda with four hundred ninety two people per one hundred thousand this stack shows the lifetime likelihood of United States citizens born in the year two thousand one to be incarcerated so they looked at two
different armed groups men and women and they looked out white are Latino and black in these numbers are %HESITATION there were fine so for white men we would expect a C. about one and seventeen incarcerated for Latino man one in six and for black it's one in three for our white women one in a hundred eleven for Latino one in forty five for black women that
numbers one in eighteen the bureau of justice estimates are total population of incarcerated people at about two point two million additionally this does not additional numbers include four point seven million people that are on probation and parole many of these are for nonviolent offenses and they are due to changes and sentencing law and policy now to talk on a little bit about the cost of incarceration
each individual in the United States is paying about two hundred sixty dollars per year to keep people incarcerated in our country the total number on that is about eighty billion dollars per year to keep people incarcerated this is a very poor return for our investment as far as I can say and there are collateral costs we look at the increasing number of women that are incarcerated
in our country and we have to look at the placement of their children and the services their children need in order to be maintained we look at child welfare social services education and in many cases the children placed in foster care because there aren't family members to care for them these costs are not reflected in the numbers that I've given you on the cost of incarceration
and these are just dollars and cents costs can you imagine what it would be like to be a child brought up with one or both parents incarcerated the great majority of people that are locked up in our country today if you trace their crimes back they are related to drugs and or alcohol and many times mental illness sometimes both some people are dually diagnosed in our
correctional facilities these these elk these have long been armed illnesses alcoholism mental illness and drug addiction their illnesses and they are treatable so we need to see treatment for these people within the correctional system many of the people that we incarcerate have huge educational deficits they haven't had the opportunities that all of us here today have just the on single fact of of receiving a high
school equivalency equivalency while incarcerated greatly in she increases a person's chance for success after release and lastly these people many of them do not have a marketable skill sort of put vocational training programs into the correction system would offer them a chance to earn a decent wage once they are released within corrections we have a chance to offer a different model and a different a different
model one of treatment and education not punishment progressive correctional facilities have large staffs of volunteers to support their programming our project at Hampshire County jail was funded by two sources grant monies and a generous anonymous donation all of the labor and work done on this project in the time and energy put into it was by the crew of men who were incarcerated that volunteered to go
out and built the labyrinth by community volunteers who came in and worked with jail staff and by the jail staff themselves I think we have to look for ways to find creative solutions to help solve this problem in our country if we can find a way to do this in our community people all over the United States can do the same thing on the now sheriff
at Hampshire County jail Patrick Calin has said that we should remember that ninety eight percent of incarcerated people will be returning to our communities if we can do something while they're in our care and custody a better their lives it betters all of society I want to just end by paraphrasing on an Irish poet and philosopher John o'donoghue he said that you can judge a country
