QUESTIONS FROM OPENING CIRCLES
CAN YOU SEE?
WHAT IF
RICHIE’S DAY
ALL THE PLACES I’VE BEEN INCARCERATED
WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE…
RICHIE’S CALL
QUESTIONS FROM OPENING CIRCLES
Crime
Are criminals made or born?
Are you ever truly separated from your crime?
Can criminals be rehabilitated?
What if there were no prisons?
How do you define “criminal”?
What is innocence?
Does childhood or circumstance make you a criminal?
Does a crime define you for the rest of your life?
What does the stigma/shame of being incarcerated look like?
Family
What is your family status right now?
What are my children doing?
Do you have family members incarcerated?
Are you in a dispute with a family member now? How did you handle it?
Did you grow up with both parents?
If you could choose your own family, who would it be?
What family members do you feel closest to?
Do you define family different than just your blood?
What if you could never see your family again?
Earth
Are you connected to the earth? How?
How do you show appreciation for the earth?
If solid walls hold us in prison, what are your walls?
Do you believe food should be your medicine?
If the language of the earth is tsunamis and earthquakes, what is the earth trying to tell us?
Do you get revitalised by going out in nature?
Who does the land belong to?
How can we restore the natural elements?
Do we own this planet?
Are we the last generation?
AE members
CAN YOU SEE?
Can you see the long orange line,
All the faces of the wasted youth?
Piled up five stories high,
Human cord wood scent of truth.
Can you see the desperation,
Behind smiling eyes, rotten?
The throwaway generation
some remembered some forgotten.
Can you see the withered old grey men
Being squeezed for their last breath
Behind the walls, beyond their time
‘Til their only hope becomes death.
Behind the hope gone rotten
Can you see the desperation
far too long in isolation
too many dreams forgotten
Richie Morris
WHAT IF
What if my parents never brought us to America?
What if my family was rich?
What if I had parents that helped me?
What if learned to play soccer as a child?
What if my children came to prison?
What if everyone grew up with a mom and dad at home?
What if no one had to worry about money?
What if I was never born?
What if I never sold drugs?
What if I went to college?
What if we were all one race?
What if there was no gravity?
What if my brother was never killed?
What if I never joined a gang?
What if my parents stayed together?
What if over half those now incarcerated were not in the next 3 years?
What if I had grown up in just one household?
What if I had been a good father?
What if I had followed my instincts?
What if Martin Luther King Jr. was alive?
What if the towers never fell?
What if violence could be removed from a person’s desire?
What if everyone believed in God?
What if this was all a dream?
What if I didn’t believe all my thoughts?
What if everyone was rich?
What if money didn’t exist?
What if there was no such a thing as violence?
What if people quit listening?
What if there was no God?
What if there was no law?
What if we traded places?
What if you could right all your wrongs?
AE members
RICHIE’S DAY
I wake up at 5am, always at 5, never at 4:30, never at 5:30
I always wake up at 5am.
I set my day in order
I make coffee, 1 teaspoon of Folgers, always Folgers instant
I use cream and 1 packet, just 1 packet of sugar
I walk the 39 stairs down to the Chow Hall,
39 stairs, 13 stairs in each tier,
Three tiers of stairs
I look at the line or stand in the line
I am either looking at lines or standing in lines
The same faces, the same people, standing or looking at the lines
I sit in the same seat every morning
13 rows in, never the 12th, not the 14th
Always the 13th row in,
I sit in the same seat.
They don’t bother me in the morning
In the evening they will stop me
But not in the morning, in the morning they never bother me.
On Monday and Friday there is peanut butter in box lunches
The rest of the week, it is a brown bag lunch.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Meat, sealed carrots and a cookie
On Monday and Friday there is peanut butter in box lunches
But never on Tuesday, never on Wednesday, or on Thursday
Richie Morris
ALL THE PLACES I’VE BEEN INCARCERATED
Richie
81’ I was 21, Picayune, Mississippi
Chris
88’ Long Beach City Jail, L.A. County Jail
Prince
Delano 94’, 27
Luke
I was 19, Van Nuys County Jail
Eric
12 years old,1992 Boys Intake/Alameda County Juvenile Hall
Luke
35, L.A. County Jail, Glass House
Eric
14, 1994, Timeout in room/2nd Step Group Home, Fremont, CA
Chris
89’ Chino Reception, Corcoran
Richie
84’, 85’ I was in my early 20’s, Ceres, California
Prince
New Folsom 94’, I was 27
Prince
Wasco 2000, I was 32
Chris
89’-92’ Old Folsom
Luke
36 Delano
Luke
37 Corcoran
Eric
I’m 17 in the Back of a paddy waggon
Chris
92’-94’ Calipatria
Richie
85’ I was 24, Old Folsom
Richie
89’, 90’, 99’ late 20’s, late30’s, New Folsom
Richie
2011, 50, Old Folsom
Prince
Soledad 2002, I was 34
Eric
18, 1998 Holding tank/North County Jail
Luke
40 Tehachapi
Eric
21 in 2001 Dark Room/Oakland Superior Court House
Chris
94’- San Quentin State Prison
Luke
51 San Quentin State Prison
Richie
2014, 2015, 53, 54, San Quentin
Prince
San Quentin 2012 until today, I am 48
AE members
WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE…
Los: Would you rather have truth or respect?
Luke: Truth, because it always finds its way to the top.
Los: Would you rather have money or trust?
Luke: Trust…you can’t buy trust with money, but if you trust the right people money will come.
Los: Would you rather have health or love?
Luke: Health, so I can find love.
Los: Would you rather have time or wisdom?
Luke: Time, if I have time I can gain wisdom, but wisdom doesn’t mean I have time to use it.
Los: Would you rather have loyalty or happiness?
Luke: Happiness, when I find my own happiness, I am being loyal to myself
Los: Would you rather have freedom or security?
Luke: Freedom, security is fleeting.
Luke Glen Padgett & Juan Carlos Meza
RICHIE’S CALL
Richie’s call in the corner
Pre-recorded partial list
Things that have happened since he’s been inside
Invasion of Iraq
Gay marriage
Marijuana legalization
American Idol Premieres
Gas costs over $2.00
Facebook
Electric Cars
DVD’s
MP3s
Cd’s
Krispy Cream Donuts
Twitter
49’ers win Super Bowl
Starbucks
Internet
Flat Screen TV
Road Rage
Walmart
Credit cards, everyone has one
ID Theft
Google
Richie Morris