Meditation Group Helps Women in Prison

June 21, 2003

Source: The Modesto Bee

http://www.modbee.com/life/faithvalues/story/6998614p-7932564c.html

On June 21, 2003 The Modesto Bee reported that "since spring, [Grace] Schireson has led small groups of Zen practitioners from the Modesto area, North Fork and Fresno into Valley State Prison for Women. They volunteer every other week to meditate with inmates who are serving sentences as short as six months and as long as life... They also periodically visit Central California Women's Facility across the street, which houses similar inmates, as well as those condemned to death... Several of the women said meditation is working. They find quiet spaces and times to meditate during the day. They feel less tired and tense, they said, and more relaxed in their crowded and sometimes hectic living conditions."