This Film is Dedicated to Father Stephen Chinlund

The Rev. Stephen J. Chinlund died at home in Manhattan of natural causes on April 8th at the age of 86.

​Born on December 23, 1933, Chinlund’s life’s work was driven by a devotion and commitment to Prison Ministry and the needs of those affected
by the criminal justice system.  

He was the Assistant Director of Exodus House from 1963 – 1965, co-founder of Reality House in 1966, a consultant for the New York State
Narcotic Addiction Control Commission from
1967-1968, Director of the Manhattan Rehabilitation Center from 1968 -1973, opened the Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, NY in 1974 to design and implement a plan to receive and provide short term counseling to inmates from upstate prisons. He then served for two years as Executive Director of Big Brothers, Inc. before being named by Governor Carey to chair the NYS Commission of Correction agency responsible  for monitoring and establishing standards for corrections protection. Finally, he conceived and developed a Prisoner-Family program for the NYS Department of Correctional Services before his return to parish ministry. 

​Father Chinlund also had a career as an accomplished painter. His works can be seen at www.chinlund.com

In 2011, Father Chinlund was the subject of the documentary, Prison Transformations, based upon his book of the same name, about his 50 years serving incarcerated populations in New York jails and prisons. View the film here.

---

---

Ubuntu

​“Are you familiar with the word, ‘Ubuntu?’  It means ‘I see myself as inextricably bound with the rest of humanity.’”
Troy Williams, Inmate/Producer/Director,
​San Quentin Prison Report

​​“A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?” Nelson Mandela

“I believe that this program in San Quentin has saved Troy’s life.”
Ann Williams, Mother of Troy Williams

---

---

Folsom Prison

“The traditional context for deep personal transformation situates a person in a contemplative setting that includes solitude, undisturbed quiet, and beautiful surroundings. For some, a penitentiary (a place for doing ‘penance’) can model a contemporary monastery, with ‘cells,’ ‘solitary confinement,’ and ‘silence.’  
At Folsom, at least with the men that I work with, nothing could be further from this view.  Here the penitentiary experience is a vastly different environment, where life-threatening violence is the norm, and cacophonous, irritating noise is ubiquitous. Correctional Officers (guards) routinely hassle them coming to Centering Prayer, and at times interrupt the prayer time itself to let their presence be known. For these men Folsom is no ‘monastery.’  

Yet, unmistakably there are a few men at Folsom Prison who have significant prayer and spiritual experiences that are legitimately described as ‘transformative’. Their lives are lives of service to their fellow inmates in the simplest of ways. I recognize this transformation because I’ve had the good fortune to observe it over the years. I am not certain how obvious this will be to an outside observer. So, my hope is to help the filmmakers and then the world appreciate the particular ‘transformative’ experience of each imprisoned man.”    Ray Leonardini, Volunteer Chaplain, Folsom State Prison, CA

The Modern Monastery?

The modern English penitentiary system, developed in the 18th century by John Howard borrowed much from the structure and discipline of the ecclesiastic penal system. In fact, Howard’s conception of a prison with individual cells was based on Pope Clement XII’s prison of San Michelle, built in 1703 to reform juvenile delinquents, which applied the monastic discipline for purposes of civil punishment and correction.

One can clearly see how the modern prison system mimics the monastery “cells” – hence the name, the emphasis on silence, isolation and self-denial with the aim of bringing self-reflection, correction and a return to society.  The whole notion of solitary confinement was based on a monastic principle.

---

---

BLAKE
Called simply “Blake” by his friends, the original guiding light of the project was Herb Blake, a man who achieved his own transformation within the walls of Folsom State Prison.  Before his untimely passing on January 8, 2012 Herb had discussed with Pacific Film Foundation his intense desire to teach the world about the transformation possible in prison, using his own life as an example.  Herb was in daily contact with Joe Hartnett and Dayle Davidson, Ph.D. in their early development of this documentary.

Herb’s first book, The Last Place I Looked, is a testament to the transformative power of faith and centering prayer.  When he passed away, Herb was working on the second of two books in a series, Parables for Today.  Herb was released from prison on his birthday, December 8, 2008, and continued the work he had begun in prison, organizing and leading victim awareness groups and teaching forgiveness in special workshops.

Entering daily life with his characteristic vigor and good humor, Herb volunteered at the Center for Restorative Justice at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, was a co-facilitator of the Victims/Offenders reconciliation program at Homeboys Industries, was vice-chairman of the Board of Directors for the Office For Health Justice, and was co-chair of the Re-Entry/Social Justice Committee with the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater LA.

Herb’s message extended well beyond Los Angeles and the U.S. when he became the producer/host of his own radio talk show, “Path to Justice.”  His special guests came from his growing global network of people seeking social justice, from such countries as New Zealand where his close friend, Chris Graveson, Inspector of Police, Wellington, New Zealand was a pioneer in the first country to change its justice system for juveniles to be based upon Restorative Justice.

The Incarcerated Free

Despite their physical custody, the minds, hearts and spirits of these individuals soar above and beyond the physical walls of the prisons, allowing them to achieve a freedom of spirit, perhaps greater than that of many in the “free world” as it’s referred to by those on the inside.  This episodic documentary is created neither to praise nor to blame prisons, but rather to highlight the potential for personal growth and redemption in those inmates who are driven to create lives that are not governed by the actions of their past, even when those lives will be lived out behind the fences.

It’s important that audiences hear these powerful voices speaking of their desire to rise above their past actions to bring peace, understanding and forgiveness into their lives and the lives of those around them.
​