Hello, friends and allies,


I hope that you are doing well and enjoying the summer.

We are pleased to announce that Prison Dharma Network and Peacemaker Institute have moved.

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Listening to Rwanda
Photography by Peter Cunningham
Narrative by Fleet Maull
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I had just finished reading “Safety and Security,” a chapter from my book Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup, at a recent book event. It describes a morning I spent proctoring a state exam for a student who was locked up in solitary confinement at the county jail where I taught high school for ten years.

Each time I read that chapter the hor

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from the DLF blog:
(attached to this post is the Study Guide for Prisoners)
Click here to download:
Discovering-Ethics--A-Study-Guide-for-Inmates.pdf

In the… Continue

By Cherry Thein


PRISONERS in Myanmar jails, sometimes accompanied by warders and other prison staff, are studying meditation and Buddhist doctrine as more courses on Dhamma are being offered to inmates.



The first course, in 2008, took place at Insein prison and attracted 5… Continue

Book signings are great for stories, as every author knows. Everybody has one they want to tell you.

I’ve had my share as I’ve done readings for “I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup.” There was the teenaged woman who lived on the streets, but finally got a job and a room for “me and my baby.” The grandmother who lost a son and daughter to crime. The Viet Nam vet who did lots of drugs until Jesus found him.

At one recent reading, I couldn’t help noticing… Continue

I have been incarcerated at Allenwood for the last 10 months. While I was in the world outside I practiced meditation on and off, finding a refuge to my busy life and anxiety in it. Being in prison is another story. I have time, more time than I ever had. Time to use or misuse, time to achieve or time to loose. Time to enlighten my mind, or time to be enveloped by it. The decision seems easy, but it's not. In prison, despair, boredom, anxiety, loneliness, all of those things that go against our… Continue

As meditation practices rely less on mysticism and more on practical
application, more and more people are flocking to it every year. In

addition, the scientific community has done their share of studies and

concur, it's healthy. Meditation has been credited with helping mana… Continue