Cows, Correctional Facilities, and Contemplatives

Precisely a week ago, four volunteers descended on an Airbnb in Graceville, Florida, making final preparations to spend the next day in prison. Sue, Linda, and William traveled over 300 miles to join Chandra, one of two volunteers who support a Centering Prayer group inside Graceville Correctional Facility (GCF), a medium security prison housing nearly 1900 men. 

The foursome gathered to host an eight-hour silent retreat at the request of participants in the group. The Rodeo Inn, complete with a herd of bovine contemplatives including a self-appointed "guard calf" served as a perfect launching pad for Saturday's adventure.

After hearing about several extended Centering Prayer intensive retreats, including a seven-day held in Colorado last September for the Outside the Walls community, a couple group members drew up a formal proposal for a three-day silent retreat within the prison, complete with suggested adaptations and a schedule tailored to local rhythms.  Together, the group decided to begin with one full day of silence, as a first step into retreat territory.

While many Centering Prayer groups exist inside prisons, and certainly there have been documented extended retreats in other meditation traditions (e.g. the 2008 documentary, The Dhamma Brothers), to the best of our knowledge this was the first full-day silent Centering Prayer retreat held inside a locked facility.  (Please correct us if you know otherwise!)

Fourteen of the fifteen current regular attendees of the group chose to attend the event, with the only exception being someone who had a visit scheduled for that day.  With the four volunteers and two chapel orderlies (also residents of the facility), there were a total of 20 people in the chapel for 8 hours, which everyone agreed passed quickly.

After a welcome and brief introductions around the circle, the group entered "grand silence," giving each other the precious gift of time to follow one's own inner rhythms -- refraining not only from verbal interaction but also from eye contact and other communication.  

The day held nine 20-minute periods of Centering Prayer, organized mostly in pairs separated by a walking meditation.  A brief reflection by Sue, the retreat leader, helped set a tone for the day; she also began a couple of the sits with guided body scans.  Otherwise, the time together was an extended, shared immersion in silence -- including lunch and the two periods of unstructured time, during which poems, icons, and journals were available for those who chose to engage them.

Graceville is a privately contracted prison where Chandra has volunteered since December 2011.  She introduced Centering Prayer there late in 2012, just a few months after beginning her own practice; the group formally began in January 2017.  This fruitful retreat day would not have been possible without support from the facility's administration and staff -- particularly the phenomenal staff Chaplain, David Hendricks.  

PCF is committed to supporting as best we can any prison-based Centering Prayer group efforts to extend opportunities for residents to deepen their practice.  Please join us in praying for all within the system who support the sharing of this transformative practice with our friends inside the walls -- and stay tuned for more reflections on this powerful experience.