Untraditional prison stories

In prison, my bunk was the bunk that many came to for open-minded conversations of all types. You know, aliens, nature, religion, race, death and also even more far out stuff like, feelings, emotions, ideas, cross roads and yes, “rehabilitation”. I never really liked that word rehabilitation. It feels so stale and manufactured.

My bunk was visited by many of the prison social outcast and misfits. You would think that would be everyone, but just like in any society you have those who don’t quite fit in with the in crowd. I started an organization in prison called, “Open Minds Only” which was technically against the rules but we were harmless. We would have discussions, group yoga and meditation sessions and even did a drug intervention for one of our kindred’s who started to spiral pretty bad on various drugs.

I created a vocabulary, workshops, community service projects, you name it, we probably did it. We were all misfits. Too positive to be a gang and too socially rebellious to be a spiritual group. Men would pass by our circle looking confused. There would be 1 or 2 from this gang and 1 or 2 from that race, and 1 or 2 who may be gay and 1 or 2 who were with which ever spiritual group. We were a beautiful melting pot of, “Weirdos.”

Weirdo was the first word I created for OMO. It stood for, “What Each Individual Represents Desires Openly.” WEIRDO was a compliment. Another one of my favorites was, hybrid. A hybrid is a mixture of, intellect, empathy and rebellion. At the heart you had to be a kindred. A kindred is simply someone who shared a common spirit of being a good human being, despite all our many flaws. And we all had plenty, but we were genuinely a good group of humans who cared about our planet and other humans who traveled it.

At the height of OMO we would have up to 20 people talking, debating, reporting cool current events from cut out newspapers and magazines. We did presentations of our plans and goals and gave constructive criticism of them. We even created literature that we would pass out to people with inspirational or socially challenging questions and concepts. What was so beautiful about our projects, was that we were not in the least influenced or governed by the institution to do any of it.

I served 9 years in prison which believe it or not is not that long compared to so many others who were around me. However, it was still a significant chunk of time. I seen many men in OMO come and go during that time. One of the best feelings I felt from the OMO community was when one man made parole and told me that when in our groups he felt like he was not in prison. He said he felt free. I learned that day that when you create an environment where a person can be honest, you create an environment where a human can experience freedom, even if that place is within a prison.

Let me state for the record, we were by no means the majority. We represented a very small minority tracked thinking. What I also know is that there were many others who wanted to come sit with us and at least listen to what in the world all these diverse, mixed up outcast could be laughing and talking about for hours. Unfortunately, pride, reputation and status are very much real and many of these men placed themselves in a prison within a prison and pocketed the key.

My goal and vision for creating this group was out of desperation to break free of this way of thinking. I walked out on the rec yard one day and it hit me like a ton of bricks. In such a segregated and close-minded place, I needed something more like oxygen to a drowning child. So, I started having conversations one by one. I started writing small essays of my thoughts and sharing them with kindreds I thought would understand. Then one day I looked up and others started to talk with me about how they felt the same. Open Minds Only was so damn liberating.

Now that I have been home from prison for three years, several of these men remain my friends. Over all we have a pretty good track record. Many of us are doing well and seek to live a life of some kind of value and purpose. Ironically, some of my most meaningful relationships and interactions in my life came from within these circles of men. In such a close-minded place we all had the courage to open our own.

Seneca Wills

This article was written by Retreat House Friend Seneca Wills.

Wills is currently living in Dallas and works as a personal trainer and yoga teacher in Deep Ellum. He is also the co-founder of Social Medialess, a movement encouraging society to spend time away from social media. To learn more or get involved, email Seneca. You can read more about Seneca’s sacred story in our blog series Invitation to Heal: Racism in America.