MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING
COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER
MCPCC met on
December 8, 2004 in West Newton. Beverly Wilkins, Mary Ann Donaldson, Tom
Crowther, Dorothy Weitzman, Bill Bergquist, Joanne Glover and Marjorie
Moerschner were present.
Dr. Marrey
Embers, the new director of criminal justice programs at the City Mission
Society, has developed a Speakers' Circle curriculum for inmates just being
released from prison. They receive training in public speaking so they'll be
able to tell their stories to churches and other interested organizations. CMS
has a number of programs which work directly with inmates, including a writing
program for women at Framingham. Recently CMS, through the Public Voice
Project, has taken part with other organizations in discussions of the
Harshbarger Report (the Report from the Governor's Commission on Correctional
Reform.) Three study groups were formed as a result of these discussions: on
reentry issues, on mental health and women's issues and on the external review
board.
Sometime in
the new year, we would like to have Lee Gartenberg speak to us. His visits are
always highlights. We'd like to learn more about the Harshbarger Report.
Perhaps we could also have men from the CMS Speakers' Circle Program as our
guests.
We would
like to expand the Billerica art contest to other Houses of Correction, and
have a combined exhibit in a public space. The University of MA at Lowell might
be a good spot.
Tom
delivered 400 Christmas cards to Chaplain Milton Thomas, of which 200 had been
made from the prisoners' art work.
Referring
and adding to previous newsletters:
Michael
Ashe, the Sheriff of Hampden County and keynote speaker at the September CJPC
conference in Shrewsbury, is, as we mentioned before, a firm believer in keeping
inmates busy. He
puts men
into an active eight week orientation program as soon as they enter the prison,
before they go through classification instead of after, as is usually done. He
recommended this system to the other Houses of Correction.
The new 25
bed psychiatric unit at Billerica will indeed be the assessment unit for
eastern Massachusetts. There'll be another in the western part of the state.
These will be primarily diagnostic rather than treatment facilities, The unit
at Billerica will be separate from the rest of the prison and will hire its own
staff.
*
* *
Here is one
of the winning entries in the recent writing contest for Billerica inmates:
My faded
white worn sneakers had a hole on the left shoe where my big toe burst forth.
As I walked along a purple crushed stone sidewalk bordered by shaded green
grass my eyes were drawn to a blossoming white dogwood tree and red and orange
roses on a thorny vine trellis.
As I was
admiring the blossoming beauties, men and women in dark blue suits with white
shirts were filing out of marble and concrete skyscrapers. Walking with their
heads bowed and stern countenances, they glanced my way and were now also
mesmerized by the freedom-loving flowers.
Within
seconds everyone was daydreaming and chattering. I heard one woman recall in a
thick Cambridge accent "I won 1st place for the B.C. aht
contest as a junya" Another man reflected his talent for building and how
he passed his eagle scout test by making a rope bridge from hemp he had grown.
Story after story, blossom after blossom, people spoke of their dreams.
In the
middle of the crowd stood a tall lanky gent wearing mirrored sunglasses which
reflected the white puffy clouds, He hummed and whispered a country western
song about the twisted gnarled vine of his life supported by the trellis of God
with many blooms and many thorns.
We will give
you more of the winning entries as space permits.
NEXT MEETING: JANUARY 12, 2005
SECOND CHURCH IN NEWTON, 60 HIGHLAND STREET,
WEST NEWTON