We made our first visit to one of the halfway houses tonight. It really was an incredible experience. This program only deals with men who have life sentences. We met around 20 men tonight during their weekly group talk. We introduced ourselves and what we're trying to do and I think it was difficult for me personally to communicate what we're doing without seeming voyeuristic. We thanked everyone for letting us into their house and hoped to build sound relationships with them. While we introduced ourselves, one of the men asked what we were really doing there. Most of the men have served at least 17 years of their sentence in prison and some just arrived at the halfway house a few days ago and others have been there for almost a year. The topic for tonight's group talk was a daily blessing. Phillip, one of the members, started out the discussion and passed a feather along to each person when they spoke in hopes that each story would share the truth of how everyone was feeling. We didn't expect to be apart of this experience but the feather got passed to one of our group members by surprise I think. It made for an incredible experience because for me, at least, it really broke down some initial barriers that might separate us from the members. One man spoke of the blessing it was to see rain today for the first time because when he was first released he missed the rain just by a few days. I felt that the overall feeling from the group was that they felt blessed to wake up today and put their feet on free ground. The fact that we were able to participate in the discussion made the experience feel even more intimate, especially given the number of people in the room.
There are 4 transitional houses with around 7 to 8 men living in each. The house we visited tonight was the main house with the most residents. Each house has a "house manager," who is a member of that house but for the most part they are not supervised on a constant basis. Bryan, one of the members, talked to me about how a few other programs are a lot more strict than St. Francis, in terms of surveillance of the members.
A few of us mentioned in our blessings how we felt that being at the house was the highlight of our day. At the end of the group talk Phillip mentioned and welcomed us on behalf of everyone in the house. I'm really looking forward to our next visit and to building relationships with the men.
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Hi Tiffany: Thanks for posting. This sounds like an amazing opportunity--how often do we hear stories from men just released from prison? Their support systems, and the way that they make sense of their experiences: all could be interesting to explore.
I'm glad you were cautious about the voyeuristic potential for this project. We definitely want to emphasize a genuine collaboration, as much as is possible. And we also want to emphasize ACTIVISM, rather than telling more sob stories. Emotion can be a powerful tool, but it has its limits.
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