Last year we took steps toward expanding the scope and effectiveness of what we do. This year we have been consolidating and deepening our understanding of what men on the inside need and the skills they need to pass on their gifts within and beyond the institutional environment.
Highlights:
- · In March of this year JCP co-sponsored a workshop at Suffolk University Law School in Boston entitled “The Hard Road Home: Welcoming Ex-Offender Back to the Community.” Panelists discussed the legal and social context of reentry as it relates to the transitional process from prison to community.
- · Our 6th Weekend Intensive Training (2-days) was held at Bay State Correctional Center, April 2-3. Facilitators for this workshop came from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Florida, Wisconsin and California.
- · Our 7th Weekend Intensive Training (3-days) was held at FMC Devens, June 24-26. This workshop included a sweat lodge hosted by Native Americans at the institution.
- · This January, JCP inaugurated a new program at Souza-Baranowski Correction Center– a maximum security institution operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. Targeting a Lifer’s Unit, this circle is offered an opportunity for JCP to address the needs of longer term inmates.
- In February of this year, for the first time, JCP offered an Inside/Outside Workshop for inmates and outside facilitators at MCI-Norfolk. This weekend included a special program designed to deepen the experience and skills of inside men and train facilitators in cutting-edge techniques for personal transformation behind the walls.
- In September of this year, JCP will be offering our third annual intensive weekend at MCI-Norfolk. This workshop will be the largest in our history, involving 40 men from both sides of the wall. The program at this institution has expanded to two inside circles, featuring opportunities for inside men to develop skills and pass on the lessons they have learned.
- This year, our tenth in operation, JCP has expanded and diversified its Board of Directors (see Home page) to better serve its mission, communities and clientele.
Photo by Albert Cook
Men’s circles to bring down the walls
Circles are a place where inner discoveries become possible and truth can be told. Joseph Campbell has said that “When a magician wants to work magic, he puts a circle around himself, and it is within this bounded circle, this hermetically sealed-off area, that powers can be brought into play that are lost outside the circle.”
The Jericho Circle Project volunteers create and facilitate men’s circles in prisons to support personal change and the discovery of deeper truth. These circles help incarcerated men develop tools to come to terms with their inner struggles and bring down the walls that separate them from their loved ones, communities and themselves. Carefully crafted to develop trust and support authenticity, Jericho circles help men see themselves more clearly, many for the first time. In Jericho circles men learn how to identify and express their feelings, communicate clearly, address conflicts in their lives, hold themselves accountable, identify new personal directions and, perhaps most importantly, find out “what makes them tick.” When equipped with these skills, men serving time are able to develop a more congruent way of living both within and beyond the walls. “Walking their talk” is one place that men in our circles begin to make diffeent choices and see different possibilities for their futures. Jericho encourages and supports men in “getting real.” Through JCP programs, offenders get to look at their shadows and come to understand the costs to themselves and others of keeping those shadows locked up. The “crisis of masculinity” has kept many men behind walls of their own and society’s making– many of those men end up in prison as a result.. JCP offers incarcerated and transitioning men support to bring down those walls and find new ways to reinvent their lives and become powerful and productive men in the world.
Contact Information: E-mail: info@jerichocircle.org Telephone: (617) 576-1066