On Thursday, February 20, the “collective” as we are now being called, met with Celeste Blair and staff for our monthly meeting. It was a long overdue meeting because things at Aliceville have a way of getting pushed back due to security restrictions, camera upgrades, or other changes to schedule. The leaders from each unit were scheduled to appear but some could not make it due to call outs. However, we were able to address many of the issues that had been simmering on the back burner. It was also a moment for the leaders from the different units to resonate on the fact that Celeste Blair will be leaving us soon and we must take up the mantle that she worked so hard to create. [Celeste was one of the 2,500 inmates who received clemency from President Biden before he left office. Her sentence was commuted from 30 years to 15.]
This program is unique because the staff expect so much of us but offer little in the way of resources, and the women we seek to help frequently get discouraged by the way the system operates. Every person who acts as a mentor in this program must feel a calling to constantly give of their time, energy and personal resources. I try to view it as practice for the mentoring I would like to do upon being granted parole so I am simply creating habits now that I want to carry into the future. Then there are individuals who don’t want help and we must balance our desire to help with a need to create agency. Additionally, we cannot forget that the desire to help cannot be stronger than an individual’s desire to change, so if we are mentoring people who don’t want help… we must focus our attention elsewhere and constantly hope something we do will one day catch their attention.
For Celeste, this program was a real labor of love and devotion and it took her years of hard work to make the progress that she did. I know she has doubts about the continuation of this program, but it is our firm intention to maintain the drive within every mentor to move forward with the examples she set for us. Three key people have been selected to work together and coordinate amongst us so that all of our needs are addressed. I think it is a testament to Celeste’s drive and ambition that it takes three people to equal her one. We will be sad to lose her presence amongst us but look forward to her release so that she can pursue bigger dreams for herself. If she could create a program like Peer Success in a federal facility like Aliceville, I know she will move mountains and create wonderful paintings. We wish her the best and hope she captures every moment to fulfill all her dreams!
