Corrections_Today_November_December_2022_Vol.84_No.6

Bookshelf

allow him to be considered competent. No one has ever provided this sort of analysis, but this art therapist was able to provide him an avenue which if only for a little time channeled his rage. We never allowed him out of his oversize cell and never let her into his cell, but by talking to him and providing him very small pencils, he was able to channel his tremendous anger. I was always very grateful because for a bit of time he was a bit less dangerous. Although this art therapist worked in five different institutions providing a bit of home to a number of inmates a second group has always resonated with me. It was a group of inmates who were awaiting a U. S. Supreme Court decision on the question of because of their sexual crimes could they be housed past their release date until a Court indicated the person had demonstrated enough control not to involve themselves again in a sexual crime directed generally toward children. This is commonly called the Adam Walsh Law which Congress authorized in 2006. Well, by 2008, we had more than 115 men who had been reviewed and were deemed appropriate for indefinite commitments beyond their release date. Since the Court had not handed down its decision on the Constitutionality of the law, most of these men did not participate in treatment because they did not want to show they needed help. As a result, the vast majority of these men did not speak to staff. Now here comes the art therapist again. Using donated yarn, these men made blankets for men who were dying

in the prison hospital. Upon the death of the sick inmates (mostly of cancer), the blanket was sent to the family as a remembrance. What a powerful statement. It is persons like this art therapist, whose name I have chosen to omit because I have not been able to get her permission to use, and Mr. Daldorph who has for 20 years in his

creative writing class have provided hope to some offenders. As you can imagine, this book is filled with good and some better than good poems. If I were to copy the one’s that moved me, you wouldn’t have to buy the book. However, there are a couple of pieces from the book, I would like to share with you:

→

Hope

As I sit in my cell I get stronger and stronger I walk and pace my cell Like a caged tiger But as the unit comes to a lull I think of hope … I see Sitting Bull, and he told me to Pray for a place for my people I seen Gandhi, and he told me to Pray for peace. I seen Shaka, and he told me to Pray for the strength of a warrior I seen Mother Teresa, and she told me to pray for the children I seen this other man, and I felt His glory but his face was distorted, but he told me to pray for mankind Then Malcolm X tap me on the shoulder, and I asked him why was everyone telling me to pray when I wanted hope, and he said, Prayer is hope and didn’t recognize that when I seen Jesus. Aw man, I missed Jesus?

— Donndilla da Great

istock/rudall30

Corrections Today November/December 2022 — 57