By Judy Silber on September 29, 2010 for CrossCurrents on KALW

Riots, overcrowding, death row … there are serious challenges to navigating life behind prison bars. But at San Quentin, there are ways to turn those challenges into opportunities for personal growth.

San Quentin offers more than 70 self-help programs – far more than any other prison in the state. And the majority are run by volunteers, according to San Quentin press officer Lt. Samuel Robinson.

SAM ROBINSON: Currently, we have about 3,000 volunteers here at this facility, people who annually come in here, whether it's one time or several times over the course of a year. They try to help steer guys in a different direction than what led them here ultimately in the first place.

The legacy of volunteer programs goes back to Warden Clinton Truman Duffy. In the 1940s, Duffy cleaned up San Quentin's rough outlaw culture and also established the prison’s first chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Over the decades, the number of volunteer programs has grown, encouraged by progressive wardens who believed the programs served both the inmates and the communities they’ll return to.

Today, about 1,000 men participate in these volunteer-run programs. And they run the gamut: there are not just one, but several meditation groups; addiction help; a victim awareness group; literacy groups; a gardening group; and a dog-fostering group; among many, many others.

KALW's Judy Silber recently visited San Quentin to talk with inmates in the Zen Buddhist group about their meditation behind prison walls.

click here to read the whole article