An interesting thing happen to me over the course of the past 3 weeks, I have been re-emersed in my religion. I never would have thought that this was going to happen in prison, but it has. There are only 18 Jewish Men in camp here, 18 out of 400, less than 5% of the population, but they have managed to organize themselves and have been able to have prayer meetings, Sabbath Services on Friday Evening & Sat. morning and naturally the high holidays. I just found out today that they are even building a Suchah for the up coming holiday of Suchkos. We are even being allowed to take our meals for the entirety of the 8 day holiday in the Suchah. I understand that there are a number of Jewish organizations that lobby the BOP on our behalf and have gotten these things to happen.
Becoming more reflective and spiritual seems to be a natural transition for many of the men here, in fact most of the men I speak with attend services for their religions and do find the spirituality makes it easier for them to cope with what they are going through. That certainly is the key for many, finding the combination of things that they can fix on to get them through their experience here and make sure they leave stronger than when they arrived.
