Corrections_Today_January_February_2023_Vol.85_No.1

NEWS&VIEWS

this community to not only see the humanity of those buried there, but the humanity of those who currently live there. He quite literally gave their names back to them. He helped this community to realize that when we heal oth ers, we heal ourselves. People on both sides of “the wall” have been

their belief (or not) in God, at the All Souls’ Day service each year, they describe how they can actually feel God’s presence ... that it is palpable.” The Taconic Cemetery is just one of hundreds of prison cemeteries throughout the country. We hope, through this article, to inspire prison administrators and chaplains in other facilities to embrace any prison cem etery in their backyard and involve local faith organizations for remem brance and respect for those buried in their midst. In the current turbu lent times, we may want to pause for a moment in reflection on our com mon humanity and the eternal call for love by remembering the close to 100 individuals in Bedford who, for far too long, were known only as a number. May it not last another 100 years before others in similar situa tions across the country are brought back to memory and merely given the dignity of their name.

Photo courtesy Hans Hallundbaek and Sharon Griest Ballen

healed by helping each other.

reality of imprisonment. The cem etery outreach project is maybe the most rewarding in terms of giving the community a feeling of close ness based on the cemetery’s long history . ” The Chair of PRAC explained, “Bedford is the only municipality in the country to establish a Town Advisory Committee specifically on prison issues. PRAC, with the full support of DOCCS, has initi ated thirteen different programs and initiatives which directly help the women in our two NYS facilities. I absolutely know that none of this would have happened without the groundwork laid by the Adopt-a Prison program. The work of IPP’s founding Director with the cemetery is at the basis of the hugely success ful Adopt-a-Prison program and the formation of PRAC. It was the idea behind a community adopting its local prison that planted the seeds in this Town for it to be able to ‘see’ the women, whether alive or dead, in our two NYS prisons as more than the worst thing that they have ever done. By working tirelessly to humanize our neighbors buried at the Taconic Correctional Facility cemetery, IPP’s founding Director allowed

May it not last another 100 years before others in similar situations across the country are brought back to memory and merely given the dignity of their name. Many are reduced to tears at each annual All Souls’ Day service as Cantor Jamie Tortorello-Allen sings the Mourner’s Kaddish and reminds us all how Jews are asked to pray for those who died in the Holocaust, for they have no one to pray for them. The same is true for those buried in Taconic’s cemetery. Although some of the community members have said that, at times, they struggle with

Hans Hallundbaek, M-Div., D-Min. New York Theological Seminary.

Twenty five years of teaching and service chaplaincy work in Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Founder of Interfaith Prison Partnership (IPP) and co-founder of Rehabilitation through the Arts (RTA)

Sharon Griest Ballen, MSW, LCSW, is the Chair of the Prison Relations Advisory Committee (PRAC) to the Town of Bedford; a member of the Legislative Advisory Committee on Correction

to NYS Assemblymember Chris Burdick; the Program Coordinator of Interfaith Prison Partnership (IPP); and an Elder at Katonah Presbyterian Church.

10 — January/February 2023 Corrections Today