Peacemakers in Prisons
an article by Joanne Tawfilis

I recently was introduced to a most unusual peacemaker, a gentleman who had recently been released from prison. He shared a remarkable story with me, which led me to think about the Culture of Peace from a totally different perspective.

The gentleman, who also happens to be quite a good artist had wanted very much to organize a project that would support the Tsunami and Katrina Relief Projects. This gentleman's concept was to invite prison inmates to donate money, ranging from $1 to $10 for the natural disaster funds listed above-no strings attached, as a method of "giving back to the community". He also stated "that just because people were incarcerated (and many of them based on poverty motivated crime), didn't mean that they were not part of the human race".

Unfortunately his concept did not materialize, but it sparked an idea in me. There is such a large prison population, that they could be a powerful force for the Culture of Peace.

* 2004, nearly 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end 2004 -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.

* State and Federal prison authorities had in custody 1,421,911 inmates at yearend 2004: 1,244,311 in State custody and 170,535 in Federal custody.

* Local jails held 713,990 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence at midyear 2004. An additional 70,548 persons under jail supervision were serving their sentence in the community. *Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm#findings

Based on this concept, and the stunning numbers listed above, I believe these people could contribute much to remedy several needy situations, and in their own way, exemplify a form of support for the Decade for the Culture of Peace. Perhaps, beginning in 2011, the next decade might be "The Decade of Reconciliation".

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People in extraordinary situations
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