Infractions bring swift and painful punishment. The prison world is so alien that new inmates, called fish , are put into a separate prison bloc until they learn to adjust. Prison has nothing to do with rehabilitation. A man who realizes he must change his life has almost no options here. The few rehab programs offered are booked solid, their waiting lists jammed.
Most guys just settle in and grind out their time time that is black, endless, unrelieved monotony.
When they are released, nothing about them has changed. There is no way that Centering Prayer should show up here. It is impossible. But it has happened is happening. Four hundred men are doing their daily practice in Folsom Prison.