Corrections_Today_January_February_2023_Vol.85_No.1

NEWS&VIEWS

CORRECTIONAL CHAPLAIN PERSPECTIVES

Love your neighbor by establishing a well cared for prison cemetery By Hans Hallundbaek and Sharon Griest Ballen A ll Souls Day is a special day of prayer and remembrance of the faithful departed

observed by Roman Catholics and certain Christian denominations on November 2 nd . Annually, on All Souls’ Day, such love of neighbor is demonstrated in bucolic Westches ter County, in the peaceful Town of Bedford, NY, less than forty miles north of bustling New York City. By including the close to 1,000 women in Bedford Hills and Taconic Cor rectional Facilities, this small town can boast a population of almost 20,000. Tucked away under shade trees, in a peaceful corner of the medium security Taconic prison grounds, is a cemetery. Since the 1920’s, this cem etery has served as the final resting place for almost 100 men, women, and children of all faiths. In 2019, the Bedford community decided not to let its citizens forget this sacred place, and as importantly, not to allow the deceased to be forgotten. The cemetery became an integral part of a large outreach project when, in 2019, the Bedford Town Board established a Prison Relations Advi sory Committee (PRAC.)

istock/xijian

The innovative Adopt-A-Prison model The main purpose of PRAC was the implementation of an innovative, “Adopt-A-Prison” concept suggested by the Westchester County-based Interfaith Prison Partnership orga nization (IPP), which is devoted to prison outreach and reform. The “Adoption” had as its goal to develop closer ties between the com munity and the correctional facilities in its vicinity. The Adopt-A-Prison initiative mushroomed into a ma jor support program as the COVID pandemic, ravaging the world, also

severely impacted prisons across the country. It became a program about which Anthony J. Annucci, Acting Commissioner of New York State’s Department of Correction and Com munity Supervision (DOCCS) said, “While the Department has always prioritized positive working relations and maintained open communica tions with the communities that surround its correctional facilities, there presently is a burgeoning interest and strong desire by our neighbors to get actively involved and make meaningful contributions in an organized fashion to the lives

8 — January/February 2023 Corrections Today