Never in my life have I encountered, yet alone lived among such a diverse group of people, not only in terms of demographics, but also ethnicity, culture, education and general background.
My grandmother Daisy, who was the dearest and mildest woman, ever walked on the face of the earth, was always making quilt blankets, out of little scraps of fabric from any garment or cloth possible.
As a young child, I used to help her cut the fabric scraps, usually octagonal in shape and then we would sew them together to a full size blanket, bedspread or throw.
Whenever I look around me, I see that this community in prison is analogous to those quilt. Totally diverse, yet made to be functional, despite all the challenges that we face on a daily basis.
Whether it is bickering about who went into which shower, or who ran the hot water machine dry or in worse case who stole what, we are a micro-community.
Interfaith or interspirituality (is that even a word??) is imperative to the success of such a living environment. Nobody is looking for a life long friendship of romantic relationship, but a peaceful co-existence, based on a common set of small and greater goals, such as keeping yourself, the living areas clean and orderly, respecting common goods and appliances. Respecting each other’s background, education, culture and religious beliefs will be detrimental to the success of such an environment.
Prison staff should positively influence and encourage this. I am a very, very firm believer of “leading by example”. Prison chaplains play a pivotal role in this. They are the ones who have the immense task of catering all faith groups within a prison setting and should do that respectfully, consequentially and most importantly without bias.
Today was an important holiday in Islam, Eid-Ul-Adha, commemorating that Abraham had to sacrifice his son. This was a test from God/ALLAH about the depth of Abraham’s faith. Eid-Ul-Adha is the culmination of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. All prisons should make available a venue and time slot that the special congregational prayers are performed in the morning.
In many prisons however, the Jewish and Islamic faith are not treated equally and AICs often have to have Shabbat at odd hours and NOT at sunset. Jewish people sometimes have to light candles in hallways or other high traffic areas in broad daylight.
For Muslims, certain services on high holidays are just denied or it is suggested that a service be done a week in advance or just have it with another service time. This is ludicrous as Passover cannot be celebrated at Hanukkah, just like Christmas cannot be celebrated at Easter!
We need to have respect and equality for all religious groups at any prison. If more education and information is required, this should be provided to all stakeholders.
Every human being has constitutional and religious rights, whether incarcerated or not.
Please keep the open and transparent dialogue going.
