In a secluded room, tucked away in a corner of a prison yard, about two dozen inmates stood face-to-face, staring at each other, eye-to-eye. They paired off with the person they were looking at to quiz each other about the meaning of family, a place called home, a favorite game and something exciting that happened recently.
The exercise took place on May 23 for inmates enrolled in Restoring Our Original True Selves (ROOTS), a self-help program at San Quentin State Prison.
ROOTS, facilitated by inmate Phoeun You, teaches its participants self-awareness and helps them understand the significance of history and how it relates to who they are.
The program, called Kingian nonviolence, is based on the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said Kazu Haga, coordinator of East Point Peace Academy.
“Nonviolence is a practice that we try to improve every day,” he said. “I’ve been practicing Kingian nonviolence for 18 years, and I still mess up sometimes.”
After the inmates finished questioning each other, a few of the pairs stood in front of the class to impart what they learned.
Each speaker was instructed to call himself by his partner’s name and to use the information he learned to tell the audience about his partner. The audience was instructed to look at the person whose name was called, not the person talking.
With arms swaying, fingers pointing and signaling like a traffic cop, Haga constantly redirected the gaze of the audience away from the person talking and toward the person being talked about.
Most inmates defined family as a place where mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers were together. Games revolved around sports, although one person called the Harry Potter game Quidditch his favorite. Exciting things ranged from becoming an uncle to meeting a high-powered CEO to a visit from a 6-year-old nephew who did a river dance. One inmate, smiling ear to ear, said he got married.
“It was an exercise to show that you could remember and tell another person’s story,” Haga said. “It also trains your mind to think differently and to put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” he added. “It teaches empathy.”
He concluded by saying that the activity causes people to share stories and gives rise to vulnerability.
Many times people will say, “I’m like this or I’m doing it this way, because it’s a part of my culture,” Haga said. “That’s not true. We need to rethink how we treat each other as human beings. Being a part of culture is not an excuse for violence.”
Haga then analyzed the difference between the words non-violence and nonviolence by focusing on the hyphen.
The hyphenated non-violence is an absence of violence, while nonviolence is an action, he said.
Non-violence could result in what Haga called, “negative peace.” He defined negative peace as inaction in a time where action to stop violence is necessary but not exerted.
He said working toward nonviolence requires a commitment to be “obnoxious at times, to challenge the status quo, and to take action against violence when it is in your presence.”
Someone who practices nonviolence seeks to understand other people’s perspective, Haga says, even when you disagree with that perspective.
“All perspectives are needed to understand the whole story,” Haga said. “Peace is messy. Peace is conflict.”
Haga concluded by talking about the meaning of love, how it is understood and expressed.
After describing different types of love, Haga told the group that nonviolence is rooted in “agape love,” which is unconditional.
“True power is grounded in love,” he said. “Love is powerful.”
As part of an investigation into the effectiveness of self-help programs in prisons, NBC Bay Area We Investigate producer Michael Bott attended the session.
“I am amazed at the amount of work that is taking place at this prison,” Bott said. “More people need to see the tremendous amount of insight gained from these programs.”
