Doug Gorman
  • Male
  • Vancouver, WA
  • United States
Share on Facebook
Share Twitter

Doug Gorman's Friends

  • Carter (PDN Admin)
  • Bo Lozoff
  • DevinG
  • Seisen
  • Ryan Lennon
  • Kelly
  • Jeff Zlotnik
  • Fleet Maull
  • sarah gurganus
  • Kate Crisp (PDN Director)

Doug Gorman's Discussions

Forgotten Firefighters

Started this discussion. Last reply by Kate Crisp (PDN Director) Jan 31, 2009. 7 Replies

 

Doug Gorman's Page

Latest Activity

Doug Gorman replied to Kate Crisp (PDN Director)'s discussion Why Do So Many Buddhists Work With Prisoners?
"Because it works. Because as Buddhists, we recognize that in our own lives we have been caught by attachments that led to unskillful behaviors that led to the experience of suffering. And we have also experienced freedom. Most of us have experienced…"
Aug 18, 2011

Profile Information

Country
United States
How you are involved in Prison Dharma
Volunteer, Pen Pal, Interested
My Prison Dharma Group or Organization
For three years I was an active member of the Prison Meditation Project in San Diego. Two years ago, a job change caused me to move 1000 miles to the north and I did not connect with a group doing prison work here. I am currently looking for a way to get involved again. The work we did in prison became a focal point for my practice. I learned a lot during those 3 years.
Tell us about yourself & your interest in prison dharma: (answer required) .
I was a volunteer at Donovan State Prison in San Diego CA. I had a meditation practice for 11 years before I became involved. It was after my son became incarcerated in the California Prison system that I decided to work with the Prison Meditation Project which was affiliated with the Sweetwater Zen Center. During my time as a volunteer, I realized the scarcity of resources available to the men and women inside and the sincere interest many of them had in exploring the Dharma. Every time we went in we were all putting our practice into practice and gaining insight in the process. We learned so much from each other. It was also a challenge to work with the prison administration and a great opportunity to develop patience and perseverence..

Doug Gorman's Blog

Day of Mindfulness at Donovan State Prison

Posted on May 25, 2008 at 11:27am 1 Comment

On Saturday May 24th, in the Yard 1 Chapel at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility at Rock Mountain, 20 inmates and 4 volunteers from the Prison Meditation Project particpated in a day of mindfulness in celebration of the Buddha's birth and enlightenment. The event was the culmination of months of planning and preparation by the PMP and the Chaplains at Donovan, a California State prison with 4800 prisoners located southeast of San Diego and in close proximity to the US-Mexico border.… Continue

Comment Wall (6 comments)

You need to be a member of Prison Dharma Network to add comments!

Join Prison Dharma Network

At 12:58pm on October 27, 2007, Doug Gorman said…
From the article on MSNBC: "Of about 9,000 firefighters battling the southern California flames, nearly 3,000 are inmates. The prisoners typically get two days off their sentence for each on the fire lines. Inmates earn about $1 an hour when fighting fires, a salary the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says saves state taxpayers $80 million a year."
At 11:40am on October 27, 2007, Ekō (Joshua) Goldberg said…
Doug, your post about prisoners working as firefighters was amazing. Like most people, I had no idea that 1/3 of the fire crew were prisoners. In my experience prisoners are paid very low wages for full days of work, barely enough for a few commissary items, and not protected under employment legislation. Do you know whether the firefighting prisoner crews were paid reasonable wages for the work they did, and how much say they had around their work shifts/working conditions? Part of me is just amazed and thankful for all the emergency work done, and part of me is also concerned that this may have been exploitive as so much prison work tends to be.
At 12:51am on September 19, 2007, Doug Gorman said…
Thank you Fleet.

Actually, I haven't done any work at Lancaster, only at Donovan. There are so many prisons in California, and yet not enough to accomodate the population. And there is little support for doing anything besides building more prisons. It is good to know that there are also many people working through PDN.

Thank you for all that you have done.

Doug Gorman
At 11:33pm on September 18, 2007, Fleet Maull said…
Hi Doug,
Great to see you here at PDN. Thank you for the great work you are doing at Lancaster.
Fleet Maullo
At 1:37am on September 18, 2007, Doug Gorman said…
I am working with a group of volunteers affiliated with the Sweetwater Zen Center in National City California. The prison work is sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. I have only been going in for the past six months. One of the volunteers has been going in for six years now. We are active on 3 of the five yards at Donovan. We have volunteers who go in two times a month for two hours to lead meditation practice. The inmates I am currently working with were transferred from another prison, Lancaster, in December. We were only allowed into that yard in August. Many of them had a Nichiren practice for years at Lancaster. None of our volunteers had a background with the Nichiren practice, but we were asked to go in, and the inmates were very appreciative. We divide the time between chanting, silent vipassna style meditation, a little walking meditation, and a discussion about the meaning of the Buddha's life and teaching.
Our group of volunteers will be meeting in October to discuss future directions. We have some issues with the Prison administration and our own affiliation with BPF. We have some great volunteers in the group, and some inmates who want to learn more about the Dharma. I went to the PDN site to learn more about what resources there are and what others are doing. It is good to know that there are so many others doing this kind of work.
We will keep in touch,
Doug
At 5:37pm on September 17, 2007, Kate Crisp (PDN Director) said…
Hi Doug, welcome to PDN!
would love to read some blog entries here about your work at Donovan.
best,
kate
 
 
 

Donate!

Events