— I have taken your advice. I meditate for about fifteen - twenty minutes at night before saying my final dedication prayers... I have found, over the last week, that I have been falling asleep easier... Just that is enough for me to keep meditating. —

Mathew Ritchie, High Desert State Prison, California

 


— If one uses this time and experience of being in prison to practice meditation, to practice dharma, then being in prison, even though it is believed you are in prison by outside people, in reality it becomes a retreat for you. —

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

World Watch


Behind the Scenes: Inside San Quentin's Prison University Project

CNN.com, July 20, 2008

SAN QUENTIN, California (CNN) -- San Quentin Prison sits like a fortress along the bay just north of San Francisco. It is bordered by some of the most expensive residential real estate in the country. But at the edge of this scenic peninsula, 5,400 inmates are locked up.

San Quentin has California's only death chamber, with 656 inmates waiting to be executed.

On death row, each prisoner is confined to a cell just large enough for a bed and toilet.

Walking along these multitiered cells, where each inmate is closely monitored or escorted in shackles, reminded me of all the pain and grief endured by relatives and friends of victims like Laci Peterson, Polly Klaas or Christine Orciuch, a mother of three who was shot to death by gang member Marcus Adams in front of her 10-year-old son during a bank robbery in Santa Barbara.

Click here to read the full article.

  • JUNE