Transformative Justice Program

(formerly Prison Program)

Staff:

Michael Callahan (on leave)

Catherine Cascade

Bhante Suhita Dharma

Founded in 1998 by Diana Lion, the BPF Transformative Justice Program is deeply committed to working with prisoners, their families, and all other persons associated with the prison system to address the systemic violence within the prison-industrial complex.

In 2007, our focus will be on the Coming Home Initiative, an innovative project that will serve ex-prisoners and the greater San Francisco Bay Area community. The vision of Coming Home is to act in fellowship with those who have found the resolve to practice the dharma while imprisoned. This project is intended to meet the material, emotional, and spiritual needs of people coming home and the larger community.

Read an update on Coming Home and find out how you can help.

Dec 21, 2006 Press Release: BPF Receives Support from the San Francisco Foundation for the Coming Home Initiative

1. Advocacy and Education

Advocacy, education, and networking activities to mobilize people in the faith-based, Buddhist, and activist communities, and the general public. The growing interest in prisons means this is a ripe time to promote understanding of the root causes of the current prison crisis, and to work together for change. We have been focusing on resistance to the death penalty and addressing youth and lifers' issues.

1. The Dharma and the Death Penalty

• Declaration about the Preciousness of Life
• Reflections about the Death Penalty
  

2. Moratorium on Executions

• Frequently Asked Questions about Moratoriums on Executions
• Getting your Local Legislature to Pass a Moratorium on the Death Penalty
• Sample Interfaith Resolution
• Sample Moratorium Petition

3. Execution Vigils

• How to Hold a Vigil
• Peacekeeping
• Sample Press Advisory
• Sample Press Release
• Getting More Visibility in the Media

4. Justice for Youth (Juvenile Justice)

• Advocacy Resource List for Youth
• Transforming the California Youth Authority
  

5. Restorative Justice

• What is Restorative Justice?
• Why Restorative Justice?
• Restorative Justice and the Dharma
• Restorative Justice Resources:
  • Advocacy
  • Implementation
  • Research

6. Prison-Industrial Complex

• Statistics
• Links

• BPF joins other faith-based groups in the Simmons case to end execution of juvenile offenders!
  On March 1, 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders in the United States (one of only five countries in the world that still did this) is unconstitutional.
• Upcoming Death Penalty Events
• Success story: Ending the death penalty in the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan.   Read more

• BPF Transformative Justice Resource List
• Youth Resource Lists
  • Books and Other Resources for Teens and Young Adults
  • Resources About the Juvenile Justice System
  • General Resources for Youth and Their Parents
• Contemplative Prison Projects in the U.S.
• Contemplative Prison Work in Asia, Central and South America, South Africa, and Mexico
  

Prison Meditation Network's meditation and yoga program receives
Innovations in American Government Award!

Ministry helps individual prisoners develop skills necessary to meet the everyday violence in prison, and to lead productive and satisfying lives while in prison and post-release. We co-sponsor the Prison Meditation Network, which teaches meditation, yoga, and journal writing in sixteen northern California prisons (state and federal), jails, drug rehab, and Drug Court/alternative sentencing programs.

• Application for the Prison Meditation Network
• Frequently Asked Questions for Potential Volunteers
• How to Start a Prison Meditation Group
• What We (Women) Wish We Had Been Told When First Going Into Prisons
• Resources for Youth
  

• Guidelines on Answering Prison Correspondence
• Perspectives about a Pen Pal Relationship