Carmela Hill-Burke teaches in an Oregon prison, in solitarty confinement. One of the methods she uses with her incarcerated students is writing. Seems they take to it with hunger. Is there any arena where writing cannot lighten one's life load?
From "Solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment" (Oregon Daily Emerald):
After responding to essays written by the 200 prisoners in the IMU [Intensive Management Unit] every week, Hill-Burke started seeing improvements. Instead of a few sentences, they were writing more than ten pages and asking for more paper.
"They starved for social recognition and attention," she said. "I just wrote them a few sentences, and they would just explode."
After consideration from the prison counselors, Hill-Burke was asked to teach a class to the prisoners. Showing up to individual cages, Hill-Burke taught a class to IMU inmates on meditation, mindfulness and creative writing.
"I just wanted to explore tools to deal with the violent social atmosphere they were living in," she said. "I wanted to teach them to act and not just react to situations."
She noticed improvements every day. ...
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