A kinder, gentler community

Mark Fisher was three years into a six-year prison sentence when he decided it was time to make a change. He’d found himself in High Desert State Prison in Susanville because of a bar fight—he’d been found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon—and that wasn’t the first time he’d gotten violent, especially while drinking.

“I decided to start changing things in my life, seeking different programs,” said Fisher (who asked that his name be changed for this story). A cellmate of his introduced him to the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which offered three-day workshops inside the prison. “The first time I went, I didn’t like it. But I tried it again and I liked it—it was mostly about me changing myself.”

Now Fisher is a free man—he’s been out of prison for five years—and living and working in Chico. Some weekends, however, he goes back inside to facilitate AVP workshops for current prisoners.

“When I was inside, AVP helped me feel better about myself. I was learning things,” he said. “I wanted to be able to help other people learn the things I was learning.”

Many of those lessons have found their way into Fisher’s everyday life, he says. He regularly uses skills like dealing with anger, and how to talk out problems with others rather than resort to violence. And he’s seen a big difference in himself and fellow former inmates since taking the AVP workshops.

“It is very powerful to let guys know I was incarcerated and now I’m out here and I’m doing well,” he said. “There’s a group of guys I stay in contact with who all did the workshop and they’re all doing really well.”

AVP was started 40 years ago inside Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York. As a collaboration between inmates and local Quakers, the program quickly grew and now includes local chapters all over the United States and abroad. While the thrust of AVP’s mission takes place inside prisons, community workshops have been successful in solving neighborhood conflicts as well as giving community members tools to resolve issues nonviolently. They’re also a good way for families to prepare for a loved one to get out of prison, says Justin Lin, an AVP outreach coordinator who recently moved to Chico to start a local chapter.

Lin’s move to Chico in September came after AVP received a grant to develop a pool of facilitators who could serve the High Desert prison in Susanville. So, in addition to offering tools to those who seek them in the community, he’s hoping local workshops will attract people who want to become volunteer facilitators and lead the workshops inside the prison. He also hopes to work with local courts to offer alternative sentencing through AVP.

“In just three months, I’ve seen a strong response [locally] from people in the social justice community and the peace churches,” Lin said. “There’s a lot going on in Chico, in terms of what you can do as a volunteer here.”

Personally, Lin got involved in AVP after a job opening came up in the Bay Area. He’d heard about the organization several times, including during a fellowship in Africa, and was excited to be a part of it. His training was done in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York.

“I really saw how powerful the program was,” he said. “It gave me a perspective on how rough prison can be.”

Fisher agrees that life in prison is different.

“There’s a big abundance of violence inside,” he said. “That’s how you deal with problems in there. There’s not a lot of talking or coming up with ways to figure out how to do things [nonviolently]. So, I wanted to be able to go inside and teach those gentlemen tools on how to deal with anger and conflicts.”

meredithc@newsreview.com