Reactionary Doing Time, Doing Vipassana tells prisoners:

  "Find prison oppressive? Don't organize, Meditate!"
  
   Greenfield, MA -- In early August 1998, RAIL attended a screening of
   Doing Time, Doing Vipassana at Greenfield Community College, organized
   by the Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne, Massachusetts. RAIL
   attended to organize the participants into our campaign against
   control unit expansion and learn more about the movement.
   
   While a large number of people were interested in the MASS RAIL and
   some gave RAIL donations, it was less than should be expected at a
   prison related event. In fact, the organizers were so disturbed by our
   presence that we were offered a bribe to go away. They were afraid
   that we would scare away their invited Department of KKKorrection
   guests and therefore sabotage the effort to bring this reactionary
   movement into more prisons.
   
   Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 50 minute documentary about the
   introduction of a program of 10-day Vipassana Mediation courses in
   Tihar Jail New Delhi. According to the video, Tihar is one of the
   world's most notorious jails. Tihar is maximum security, but an
   accused pickpocket can spend 6 years there waiting to get a 1 year
   sentence.
   
   Vipassana's response to this injustice? Don't think about it, but
   concentrate on yourself, how you hurt society, and seek forgiveness.
   The introduction of Vipassana mediation into prisons is a thick
   liberal veneer over a terribly reactionary core of perpetuating this
   system.
   
   The liberal veneer can confuse some. For example, the Vipassana
   teachers insist that some guards and prison staff also take the
   course. In Tihar Jail, the warden sent the most corrupt and violent
   guards -- under threat of termination -- to the courses. Many
   supposedly came back improved, less violent people.
   
   Which gets us to the next part of the veneer, that the course helps
   people to concentrate and reflect on their actions. Any highly
   structured quasi-voluntary program of doing nothing but listening to
   your breathing for 10 days couldn't but help people to focus. The
   corrupt guards learned that their practice wasn't an effective control
   strategy and it was about to lose them their jobs. The course also
   made many prisoners begin to feel sorry for their actions against
   society.
   
   It is important that people take responsibility for their actions. In
   a just society, crime will have to be dealt with by the people and not
   an occupation government. Criminals will undergo a process of
   self-criticism by which they transform their outlook and behavior. But
   this can only take place when the larger society has some moral
   authority.
   
   The Amerikan government actively imports drugs into the country with
   it's CIA, and yet it has the nerve to call small-time dealers and
   possessors of drugs to be criminals. For Amerika to look down its nose
   at prisoners is hypocrisy at best, and more accurately it could be
   called a carefully packaged program of changing the subject.
   
   Crime is without doubt a problem, but the solution to crime is
   increasing social justice. When people live in an honorable society
   and can contribute to society in a socially useful way, crime will no
   longer exist. Focusing on yourself -- to the exclusion of society --
   merely helps you fit into the dominant ideology of imperialism.