When they close their eyes, the razor wire is gone. The silence at first seems eerie, uncomfortable. But before long, the video playing in their minds’ eyes begins to roll. One inmate sees her daughter, carefree on horseback. Happy thoughts give another a smile. Some women can hardly sit, feeling things they haven’t felt in years.
The stories that unfold inside their quiet reverie carry regret, sadness, hope and, most cherished, healing. It’s Day 5 of the first five-day silent meditation retreat for female inmates at the Lowell Correctional Institution near Ocala, the state’s largest prison for women, with about 2,600 locked up. The 25 or so participants make discoveries when they simply close their eyes and sit — quietly.
“If a crisis comes along, I can let it go on by me, and I don’t have to be involved,” said inmate Pamela Hartley, 50, of Augusta, Ga., about how the program has helped her. She is serving time on a second-degree murder charge and is not due for release until 2016.
The power of silence is remarkable, said K.C. Walpole, head of the Gateless Gate Zen Center in Gainesville, who runs the retreat. He has taught meditation for 12 years in Massachusetts and more recently in 10 jails and prisons in north-central Florida including Lowell, where he visits as a chaplain.
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