Contemplative Care Through Prison Walls
by Molly Yakusan Stevens
The U.S. prison system is a nexus of injustice, inequality, violence and cruelty — and yet humanity, resilience, creativity and growth also emerge. In working with prisoners, I have come to see how caregiving relationships offer connection and agency within the criminal justice system; and how contemplative practices can open the lock-hold of trauma, widening the understanding of who we are.
In 2020, I co-founded the Inside-Outside Study Group with Shane Pema Tenzin Marcantel, a Buddhist incarcerated in Illinois. Since his imprisonment in 1999, he has become a formal student of the Tibetan Nyingma tradition and an ordained chaplain. Through our growing friendship, I am repeatedly struck by his tenacity and kindness and am honored to support him as he helps me expand into my own potential.
Our Group empowers spiritual and emotional connection through prison walls via study, contemplation and communication. The interruptions of COVID on top of the unpredictability and deprivations of prison life—during the pandemic, this has meant 23 hours per day in lockdown—has affirmed our awareness of not knowing and impermanence as moment to moment realities.
As conditions change, so does our group. During this inaugural year, we have had 24 Outside participants—a mix of NYZCCC formal students and Foundation graduates—and 16 Inside participants, though this number is in flux as some inside go home or are transferred, and as new members from different facilities join. Many Outside members actively correspond with Inside folk, while others explore what it means to engage in this sort of exchange. The Outside group meets monthly to reflect on our experiences, offer support, and share information. These relationships can be tender, eye-opening, challenging and healing.
All Outside participants receive two monthly updates on issues and experiences around incarceration. This is prison dharma, offered by the very participants inside and outside. Sensei Chodo Campbell and I also meet regularly to plan for the growth and maturity of this initiative within the NYZCCC.
What’s next? A formal meditation class led by Pema is set to resume in May. Pre-pandemic, this class was very popular inside—it was capped at 50 participants and had a waiting list. Structured around Koshin Paley Ellison’s book Wholehearted, Outside participants will receive a study outline on the day Pema teaches the weekly class inside. This outline includes a prompt, which will be the basis of the written exchange between Inside-Outside study mates.
Practicing Zen is practicing freedom. It is my unattainable vow to find, support and activate liberation for myself and others. And so it is with aspiration, sorrow and joy that I am working with people affected by incarceration, applying my training as a NYZCCC formal student, Foundations graduate and current CPE intern.
Please write me at chaplainyak@gmail.com if you’d like to learn more.
