The story of two different Denvers | Stacey Putka + Javay Raibon | TEDxSanQuentin 2022
What do a beauty pageant contestant and an incarcerated former gang member have in common? Listen as Stacey and Javay share how their individual circumstances impacted their childhood dreams and their ability to fulfill them. Stacey believes fiercely in challenging perceptions and in the power of transformation. Growing up in an entrepreneurial household, with a father who took full advantage of his second chance in life after recovering from addiction, Stacey has always been inspired to facilitate transformation in the lives of others. Stacey received a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Colorado State University and a master’s in social work from the University of Denver. She is currently the Executive Director of Breakthrough, a Colorado based 501c3 non-profit organization that prides itself in supporting people with criminal histories as they transform their lives and radically altering the community’s perception of the incarcerated population. Breakthrough’s holistic approach includes an in-facility career education program, community engagement, re-entry support, a fair opportunity hiring program, and criminal justice advocacy initiatives. Javay was a student star athlete with a promising future that was thwarted by engagement with Los Angeles style gangs that invaded Denver in the 1980s. Javay is the longest incarcerated juvenile in the state of Colorado, serving 33 years in prison. With no formal education, Javay made a commitment to liberating himself from the gang ideology and began to seek education. He has his GED and is pursuing education at Northeast Junior College. He began to excel in the various positions of leadership and credits programs such as 7 habits of highly effective people, the Gang Awareness program, and Breakthrough for developing the skills he has now. He has made clear, transformative change in his own life and the lives of others.
Lessons from Gandhi on the violence within all of us | Arun Gandhi + Jonathon Jones | TEDxAttica 2019
In this engaging talk, Arun Gandhi shares the lessons he learned about violence while living with his grandfather Mahatma and why he now teaches nonviolence workshops in Attica and other prisons. Jonathon Jones shares how Arun’s teachings transformed him while he was in prison and now, since his release, the two are teaching nonviolence workshops in prisons together. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, was born in Durban, South Africa during the apartheid years. At age12, Arun was taken to India to live with his famous grandfather and learn ways to cope with his anger and violent reactions, having been a victim of color prejudice while growing up. During his time in India, he learned valuable lessons on life next to his grandfather. Arun is now the President of the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute to take the message of nonviolence all over the world and to rescue and train children living in poverty so that they can break the oppressive cycle crushing them. He has also started the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in 1991, based since 2008 at the University of Rochester, NY, which runs programs for inner city children, inmates of correctional facilities and poor families while teaching nonviolence to students. Jonathon Jones grew up in Rochester and learned deeply about nonviolence in many forms while incarcerated, including becoming a trainer with the Alternatives to Violence project as well as learning and then teaching Nonviolent Communication through the Gandhi Institute. Since his return home, he has continued his study of nonviolence, completing a six-month course with the Metta Center for Nonviolence last rear. Jonathan teaches and speaks on nonviolence in a variety of community settings.
Healing inside prison | Jacques Verduin + Fateen Jackson | TEDxSanQuentin 2016
Years before emotional intelligence became the latest catchphrase. Jacques Verduin was offering innovative programs that taught this revolutionary concept to prisoners. Don't miss the powerful ending, a spoken word piece by Fateen Jackson, an incarcerated facilitator working with Jacques. Jacques Verduin is currently the Director of Insight-Out. He also founded the Insight Prison Project, which under his leadership produced the gold standard restorative justice program called VOEG. His efforts have helped birth the Prison Mindfulness Initiative, the Prison Yoga Project, the Insight Garden Project, and Veterans Healing Veterans, among others. All of these organizations are being actively replicated. In addition to California, he is a consultant to the U.S. State Department and he and his staff have traveled abroad to train professionals in Guatemala, El Salvador, Bosnia, and the Netherlands. Fateen Jackson has fully accepted responsibility for all of the wrong he has done throughout his life. He has denounced all gang activity and has dedicated himself to being a peace advocate and peacemaker. He's currently working toward becoming a state certified Domestic Violence counselor/facilitator and is also a student in the Prison University Project here at San Quentin.Only recently did Fateen discover his hidden creative talent of being a spoken word expressionist. He was inspired by a fellow prisoner to write and perform his material and since, has developed a passion for the art. He now uses its platform for redemption, healing, and enlightenment.
Transformational yoga in prison | Brianne Murphy | TEDxChesterStatePrison 2016
Brianne Murphy teaches trauma sensitive yoga and mindfulness to staff and inmates in state prisons. Through a simple demonstration, she talks about the practice of yoga’s ability to offer courage, compassion and confidence; helping inmates heal and rediscover the life and freedom within. Transformation Yoga Project facilitates yoga programs at prisons and community youth detention centers across the Delaware Valley. The objective is to provide access to safe, supportive yoga programs that teach mindfulness and practical solutions for dealing with impulse control, substance abuse, anger and aggression. Benefits include reduced stress and better self-control.
Prisoners are college students | Tanya Erzen | TEDxWashingtonCorrectionsCenterforWomen 2015
Dr. Erzen believes that prison should be a place of departure and beginning. She passes her passion for education to those she encounters and instills a desire to apply learning to success. Tanya Erzen is an Associate Professor of Religion at University of Puget Sound and the executive director of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, a college program inside the Washington Corrections Center for Women. In 2014, she received a Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation to finish a book about religious programs in American prisons. She is the author of the books Straight to Jesus, Fanpire, and co-editor of Zero Tolerance.
Just sayin’ | Laurel Rayburn | TEDxWashingtonCorrectionsCenterforWomen 2015
My talk emerged out of my years of experience teaching college courses inside the prison. I address the assumption that so many hold about our students — that their status as “prisoners” is the most crucial aspect of their identities, arguing instead that we are misguided as long as we think of our students inside the prison as fundamentally different from our students on the outside. My vision for my students is that they be taken seriously as academics, that no one is to question them otherwise, and that their identities as students become a way for them to rupture the bounds of the selves they thought they knew. Laurel Rayburn received her doctorate in English from Brown University in 2012, where she completed a dissertation on 20th century American lyric poetry. She teaches academic writing for the Harvard Extension School and Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, a college program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. She is also a dedicated yoga teacher and practitioner.
Through the eyes of a child | Gina Derry | TEDxMarionCorrectionalSalon 2014
Expressing the pain and changes that a young child faces growing up in prison visiting rooms and the later recovery journey from drugs and alcohol to healing and yoga. Gina Derry is a survivor of an abusive, psychopathic father and an alcoholic mother. Her father went to prison when she was 6 years old. She has carried a lifetime of trauma from a neglectful, fatherless childhood. A vast majority of her trauma comes from visiting her father in prison and yearning for a relationship with him. Gina is a certified yoga teacher and has practiced for over a decade. This is where she found her path to healing. Along with the Yoga on High Foundation, Gina is a co-developer of the “Power of Transformation" Yoga program designed solely for the inmates of Marion Correction Institution. Her work at Marion has already brought her a lifetime’s lesson of gratitude and forgiveness. After TEDxMarionCorrectional she will continue her Dharma, speaking up for the children in prison visiting rooms. Hari Om!
Why Philosophy? | Adam Wetterhan | TEDxMarionCorrectional 2014
Connecting philosophy, reform, restoration and social justice. six.word.bio: Finding sunrise reflected in your eyes.
Yoga and meditation | Subtle practices for change | Rosa Vissers | TEDxMonroeCorrectionalComplex 2014
What changes occur when we practice yoga and meditation? And how can these practices be used to support prisoners' successful rehabilitation? In 2010, Rosa Vissers made a life-changing decision for herself—she became a volunteer with the organization Yoga Behind Bars. Her commitment to service, her love of yoga and her career experience as an international dancer combined to make a great foundation to her becoming the organization's development and communications director in 2013. Fueled by her convictions, Rosa believes that together, we can create a compassion revolution.
Houses of healing | Kathleen Macferran | TEDxMonroeCorrectionalComplex 2014
Are we really safer when we put those who harm others behind bars and forget about them? Explore turning our prisons into houses of healing and creating connections that lead to greater safety for our communities. Kathleen Macferran holds a vision for a peaceful, just and sustainable world. She works as a certified trainer and assessor for the Center for Nonviolent Communication and offers communication, conflict resolution and restorative justice system exploration to organizations and individuals. She is a lead trainer for the Freedom Project, an organization that strengthens community safety by supporting the transformation of prisoners into peacemakers. Kathleen is on the faculty of Seattle Central Community College. In addition, she has spent two decades as a music conductor and seven years as a public school teacher.