Corrections_Today_January_February_2023_Vol.85_No.1

Correctional Chaplain Perspectives

the individual as well as birth and death information. It was a major logistic effort, but the spiritual result is incalculable. Each of these people, who through their incarceration has paid their debt to society, has now — by regaining their name — been granted figuratively a “resurrection.” Their names have reentered the his tory book of the human family and can be re-inserted in the family tree of their loved ones, just as names are listed in the Book of Life every year on Yom Kippur. Sr. Antonia’s impact on the cemetery is exemplary for, and replicable at, many prison cemeteries across the country. As the Interfaith Prison Partner ship (IPP) intern and third year Master of Divinity student at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Mark Davies said, “When hearing about how the graves of those who had died in the prisons were marked only by their prison number, my first thought was of the Shoah, the Holocaust, when Jews in the camps were known only by the number tat tooed on their forearm. How even those who survived are marked by that number for life . ” And he said he thought how, just like those Jews, these women in prison were reduced to numbers, dehumanized even in

death, known to all who passed by only by a number. Reaching out to the community For the past three years, IPP has organized a commemorative celebra tion and prayer vigil on All Souls’ Day, November 2 nd . This annual All Souls’ Day event has quickly be come a much-anticipated community event. Local faith and community leaders join with prison Superinten dents for prayer and commemorative remarks, all under the leadership of Deacon Clifford Calanni, the Catho lic Chaplain at both facilities. The IPP cemetery project is only a small fraction of the enormous effort this young organization has extended to the two prisons. IPP has helped PRAC to collect over 40,000 bars of soap from the com munity for donation to our neighbors in prison during COVID, helped in engaging the community in sewing over 13,000 masks for the women in prison, the list goes on extensively. IPP has contributed to taking down the wall between a community and the residents of these two prisons. Director of IPP, Rev. Elizabeth Friend-Ennis adds: “This community member outreach project over the barbed wire fences is about someone using their own hands to create this gift for another human who would otherwise feel outcast and forgotten. It’s about breaking down barriers of fear of the ‘other’ so that we can see the humanity and the divin ity in our incarcerated neighbors and help create the Beloved Com munity. The annual All Souls’ Day cemetery event is a further exten sion of community member interest in, and engagement with, the stark →

of those who are incarcerated. The Adopt-A-Facility model can be a vehicle to harness this goodwill to make transformative changes and reinvigorate principles of humanity and community that connect us all . ” True to its nature, a cemetery is a secluded, peaceful, timeless place shielded from the surrounding world. The Taconic cemetery is a place where one is drawn to reflections on its 100 year long history. No part of that history is more remarkable and heartfelt than the impact of a Fran ciscan Sister, Sr. Antonia Maguire, FMSC, who began volunteering at Bedford Hills Correctional facility in 1973. She eventually became the Catholic Chaplain at both Taconic and Bedford Hills women’s prisons, as well as nearby Sing Sing men’s prison. Sr. Antonia’s impact on the cemetery is exemplary for, and replicable at, many prison cemeteries across the country. In her weekly solitary prayer visits to the cemetery, Sr. Antonia was increasingly pained by the fact that in the stark rows of plain, raw cement crosses, each cross held only the state identification number of the incarcerated person — no name or other information about the indi vidual. Even in death, these women, men, and children were sentenced to eternal oblivion. On those weekly cemetery visits, she meticulously took down the scarce information on the crosses. With the persistence and persuasive power of a Catholic sister, Sr. Antonia succeeded in get ting permission to enter DOCCS files to extract more detailed information about each of the interred individu als. She then painstakingly updated each cross with the proper name of

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