Pace e Bene

How Can I Cope?

Pace e Bene staff member Friar Louis Vitale, 77, began serving a six-month prison sentence on Monday, January 25 for nonviolent, prayerful protest calling for closure of the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. On February 25 he was transferred from Crisp County Jail in Cordele, Georgia, where he was held for the first month of his sentence, to the US Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.  You can write to him at the following address:

Louis Vitale #25803-048

USP Atlanta

U.S. Penitentiary

P.O. Box 150160

Atlanta, GA 30315

To see updates from and about Fr. Louie, please click here.

February 25, 2010: How Can I Cope?

Many people who write me – friends and supporters – ask about harsh treatment and brutality.  I do not deny that in many prisons and jails these conditions do exist.  One can even raise the charge of torture.  In regards to myself I have not experienced such conditions.  Hardships, yes, but not brutality or violence. 

The hardships begin with the loss of freedom.  I remember during my first incarceration, after having made pastoral visits in jail to prisoners, it was a shock as I realized the cell doors were closed and locked on me.

Jails are usually cold – or too hot – mats are hard, and not always present (as in the District of Columbia Central Cellblock), food is sometimes scarce and tasteless, clothes are inadequate (no coats or even underwear), they don’t fit, are not clean.  Medical care maybe hard to access, and not adequate, especially with serious needs.  TVs are loud and almost always on.  The noise can be horrific, even through the night.  Then there ids the isolation from family and friends.  Phone calls are difficult and expensive.  Visiting is restricted, mostly through glass, more and more in-house TV, visiting booths call even in the same building.

I remember during my first incarceration — it was a shock as I realized the cell doors were closed and locked on me

People ask, “How do you cope?”

Especially since most of my time in recent years has been for protesting torture, experienced by those subject to School of the Americas graduates, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram, the US-run prison in Afghanistan, that is replacing Gitmo for its brutality.  If this dulls the imagination there are the continuing renditions to countries that practice even more blatant torture.  This goes on throughout the world. 

If I start to feel sorry for myself I think of the suffering experienced in these and other horrific situation from slavery to executions.  How can I really complain?  Yes, it may well to called for to file complaints or act to have rules, regulations, and practices changed as has happened at Guantanamo Bay and by prison reform groups and expose such practices.  Personally I question the whole prison system.  As labor leader Eugene Debs said, “So long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”  But when I think about these situations (often at night in bed) I am able to cope with my own deprivations.

Even more significant for me is to use these experiences and reflections to create empathy with all of those who suffer these horrific experiences.  We are all part of this created world.  Each person is sister and brothers to me.  Their suffering is my sorrow as well.

The gift of compassion emerges as I contemplate on such misery of the human body.  My situation is a gateway into the compassionate energy that fills all creation and opens me to transforming experiences that I hope to share with the world community.

For this I am grateful and value this precious time.