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March/April 2006 Living Now
Letters To the Editor

To the editor

I just read the latest issue of your magazine featuring the interview with Tom Duffy and the article on the Silver Jubilee celebrations. Just to keep you posted, our local Art of Living group has active programs in the Oregon Prison system. In 2005, we conducted two programs within the OSP (Oregon State Penitentiary) in Salem, the only maximum security prison within Oregon. We have also started programs at the Coffee Creek Women’s Prison in Wilsonville. David Einbender has been spear-heading these programs within Oregon. We shall be doing another course at the end of January in the Coffee Creek facility.
Oregon is a lot better than most other state prison systems. We have lowest recidivism rate in the country, around ~30%. The national average is closer to 60% and some states like the ones Tom Duffy was referring to (California, Illinois, Maine) have recidivism rates as high as 75-90%! The Oregon Prison system is in fact being used as a role model throughout the country. Here, they are very focused on inmate rehabilitation which begins in earnest from the very day the inmate enters the system. The prison system offers a very wide range of religious and spiritual choices. Through similar work carried out here and other states, we can together help bring healing and peace and an end to violence in the prison community.
If anyone has any leads or contacts within the prison community, please let us know.
Namaste,
Shyam Gannavaram
(503-296-6656
www.artoflivingpdx.org