touching lives in prison

8/9/2019 Touching Lives in Prison http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/touching-lives-in-prison 1/2 Touching Lives in Prison When Neil White was sentenced to 18 months for bank fraud at the Federal Medical Center in Carville, LA, he thought of it as a brief time out. ´Daddy is going to camp,µ he told his 2 children. When he emerged from this combination of prison and leprosarium (leper colony) on April 24, 1994, he was single and a broken camper, destined to depend on the very friends and family he had defrauded. He emerged with a changed heart and a rebooted social conscience. His transformation is told in his 2009 book, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts . Neil·s guru held no Ph.D. in philosophy or criminal justice, nor was she a social services employee at the prison. She was a black, wheelchair-bound, legless leper, Ella Bounds. Ella had been brought to Carville by a bounty hunter some 60 years earlier. She radiated the spirit of love, died in 1998 and is buried in an unmarked grave outside Abita Springs, LA. Neil writes, ´To my wife, Debbie, a remarkable partner, editor and friend, who stepped in where Ella left off.µ Ella had 2 words of advice for Neil. Her first words, spoken while passing him in the corridor on his first day in prison were, ´There·s no place like home.µ Her last words, as his dear friend were, ´Don·t forget to go to church.µ Corrections officials have become so consumed by policy and procedures and defending lawsuits filed as creative pastimes that they have lost the human touch. The atmosphere within prison is one of long, laborious, repetitive routine designed to protect and defend the status quo. At Maine State Prison, as at many penal institutions across the U.S., that insufferable routine is gift-wrapped in a high tech, antiseptic facility that finds both staff and prisoners pointing to longevity and aging as their only measurable accomplishments. It is only when an Ella Bounds, thrown away by family and society, begins to touch lives in quiet, self-sacrificing ways does a spark of life begin to kindle community. Sometimes an Ella Bounds appears in the form of a security guard who takes the time to teach a prisoner how to read or listen to his story. Sometimes she appears as a lifer who, instead of feeling sorry for himself, helps a short-timer pull together the resources to be a success when he gets out. Often she appears as a chaplain or a teacher, a nurse or a volunteer who risks going beyond those carefully drawn lines of protocol to demonstrate, ´I care.µ The loudest voice against caring is a self-righteous public, not yet caught in their own compromises and indiscretions, who have driven public officials toward a harsh, Spartan, warehousing mentality. The higher you go in the corrections food chain, the more callous and bureaucratic and detached are the players. They live by the numbers. Most have long ago lost touch with their own humanity. Neil White is now in high demand throughout a world seeking human answers to clinical, bureaucratic obsessions. His is a story of the value of the human touch in an otherwise hopeless environment of society·s thrown-away citizens ² convicted prisoners. On September 4, 2008, he wrote these words: Sometimes I am lost. Other times, I encounter my old friends. And sometimes, I see Ella. She glides in her chair down the empty corridors. She sways to music I cannot hear. She reminds me there is no

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8/9/2019 Touching Lives in Prison

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/touching-lives-in-prison 1/2

Touching Lives in Prison When Neil White was sentenced to 18 months for bank fraud at the Federal Medical

Center in Carville, LA, he thought of it as a brief time out. ´Daddy is going to camp,µ hetold his 2 children. When he emerged from this combination of prison and leprosarium

(leper colony) on April 24, 1994, he was single and a broken camper, destined to depend onthe very friends and family he had defrauded. He emerged with a changed heart and arebooted social conscience. His transformation is told in his 2009 book, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts . Neil·s guru held no Ph.D. in philosophy or criminal justice, nor was she a socialservices employee at the prison. She was a black, wheelchair-bound, legless leper, EllaBounds. Ella had been brought to Carville by a bounty hunter some 60 years earlier. Sheradiated the spirit of love, died in 1998 and is buried in an unmarked grave outside AbitaSprings, LA.

Neil writes, ´To my wife, Debbie, a remarkable partner, editor and friend, whostepped in where Ella left off.µ Ella had 2 words of advice for Neil. Her first words, spoken

while passing him in the corridor on his first day in prison were, ´There·s no place likehome.µ Her last words, as his dear friend were, ´Don·t forget to go to church.µ Corrections officials have become so consumed by policy and procedures and

defending lawsuits filed as creative pastimes that they have lost the human touch. Theatmosphere within prison is one of long, laborious, repetitive routine designed to protectand defend the status quo. At Maine State Prison, as at many penal institutions across theU.S., that insufferable routine is gift-wrapped in a high tech, antiseptic facility that finds bothstaff and prisoners pointing to longevity and aging as their only measurableaccomplishments. It is only when an Ella Bounds, thrown away by family and society,begins to touch lives in quiet, self-sacrificing ways does a spark of life begin to kindlecommunity.

Sometimes an Ella Bounds appears in the form of a security guard who takes thetime to teach a prisoner how to read or listen to his story. Sometimes she appears as a lifer who, instead of feeling sorry for himself, helps a short-timer pull together the resources tobe a success when he gets out. Often she appears as a chaplain or a teacher, a nurse or a volunteer who risks going beyond those carefully drawn lines of protocol to demonstrate, ´Icare.µ The loudest voice against caring is a self-righteous public, not yet caught in their owncompromises and indiscretions, who have driven public officials toward a harsh, Spartan, warehousing mentality. The higher you go in the corrections food chain, the more callousand bureaucratic and detached are the players. They live by the numbers. Most have long ago lost touch with their own humanity.

Neil White is now in high demand throughout a world seeking human answers toclinical, bureaucratic obsessions. His is a story of the value of the human touch in anotherwise hopeless environment of society·s thrown-away citizens ² convicted prisoners.On September 4, 2008, he wrote these words:

Sometimes I am lost. Other times, I encounter my old friends. And sometimes, I see Ella. She glides in her chair down the empty corridors. She sways to music I cannot hear. She reminds me there is no