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Guiding Rage Into Power
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Daily Good
Posted: July 7th, 2014
http://www.dailygood.org/story/770/guiding-rage-into-power-j...
Us versus them is not a paradigm that Jacques Verduin buys into. As the founder and director of the prison program Insight-Out, he believes that prison serves a purpose for people who cannot contain themselves when they act dangerously, but he has also learned that none of us is much different from the incarcerated. Thankfully Jacques has shown that the empowerment and transformation of prisoners is a big part of what prison reform looks like, and San Quentin State Prison has become a successful social experiment that is one of the best-kept secrets around. His programs, the Insight Prison Project and Insight-Out, are teaching prisoners to transform rage and pain into a positive force in the prison community as well as their own neighborhoods. In a year-long program participants make bonds with each other that transcend age [and] racial, economic, and gang differences. It takes time, but as group members get comfortable with the concept, they practice sitting in the fire. As Jacques explains, By sitting with their own primary painthe pain that initiated them into a suppression of their feelingsand their secondary painthe pain associated with hurting othersthey find strength in the midst of their overwhelming emotions. They need a support system to share their struggle of living up to these expectations. Shame runs deep in all of us. We all need a support system to help us connect with our wounded but more authentic self. Rather than fix ourselves, which assumes something is wrong with us, lets accept and talk about our warts. By being vulnerable we take the power out of shame. Thats where authenticity lies.
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