READ TRICYCLE MAGAZINE Interview with Acharya Maull, "Prison Monk"Download PDF HERE

Fleet Maull, a longtime student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founded Prison Dharma Network (now Prison Mindfulness Institute) in 1989 while serving a 14.5 year mandatory-minimum sentence for drug smuggling at a maximum security federal prison medical facility. He led a twice weekly meditation group in the prison chapel for 14 years (1985 - 1999). He also helped start the first inside prison hospice program and provided daily care to dying prisoners until his release. In 1991, he founded National Prison Hospice Association, launching a movement that now includes hospice programs in over 75 state and federal prisons.

Fleet is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the Shambhala Buddhist Community. He is also a Sensei (Zen teacher) and dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman in the Zen Peacemaker Order and a senior priest in the Soto Zen tradition.

Acharya Maull has written many articles and given numerous interviews on a variety of prison related topics in publications such as the Shambhala Sun, Tricycle, Tikkun, Hospice Journal and Turning Wheel. He has also been a guest on NPR's Fresh Air program and other radio and television programs. His story was included in Roshi Bernie Glassman's book, Bearing Witness . He is the author of Dharma In Hell, the Prison Writings of Fleet Maull and leads prison programs, meditation retreats, chaplaincy and hospice trainings, activist trainings, bearing witness retreats and street retreats throughout the world. He is also the founder and executive director of the Peacemaker Institute and co-founder of the Upaya Chaplaincy Program.

To learn more about Fleet Maull, read: "Prison Monk: Tricycle Interview with Fleet Maull" from Tricycle Magazine, Spring 2004

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Sujatha Baliga, Director | Restorative Justice Project, Senior Program Specialist

Sujatha Baliga's work is characterized by an equal dedication to victims and persons accused of crime. The convergence of Sujatha's interest in Tibetan ideals of justice and her work with women accused of killing their abusers drew her to law school and ultimately, criminal defense work. After several years as an appellate public defender in New Mexico and at the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York City, Sujatha relocated to California in 2006 to work on capital cases. In 2008, Sujatha was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship, which she used to spearhead a successful restorative juvenile diversion program in Alameda County. Sujatha has served as a consultant to the Stanford Criminal Justice Center for a symposium titled "Rights, Needs, Power: The Victim in Criminal Justice." She has taught restorative justice at the college and law school levels, is a frequent guest lecturer at academic institutions and conferences, and has been a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

She often speaks with groups of incarcerated people about her personal experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her path to forgiveness. Today, Sujatha is the Director of the Restorative Justice Project at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, where she assists communities in implementing restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school discipline policies. In her role as Senior Program Specialist, she provides technical assistance to the US Attorney General's Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence.

Sujatha earned her A.B. from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and has held federal clerkships with the Honorable William K. Sessions, III, former Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and with the Honorable Martha Vázquez. Sujatha lives in the Bay Area with her partner of 14 years, Jason, their son, Sathya, and their sweet dog, Django.

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with very special guest ANDREA BRENNEKE

Read her TIKKUN Article, A Restorative Circle in The Wake of A Police Shooting

Andrea Brenneke (J.D. Harvard Law School ?92, BA University of Washington, ?88) is a passionate advocate for justice and facilitator of individual and community healing and empowerment. She practices civil rights and employment law at MacDonald Hoague & Bayless in Seattle. www.mhb.com. A tenacious litigator and strategic negotiator, the results she obtains compensate her clients for violations of their legal rights and dignity and secure other types of injunctive relief and policy changes that make a lasting difference in society. Her litigation successes include substantial trial verdicts and settlements in sexual harassment, disability accommodation and discrimination, gender and race discrimination, retaliation, police and government misconduct. She supports employees through all types of work place disputes, contract negotiations, accommodations and claim reporting procedures. Andrea also facilitates creative solutions and negotiated resolutions to legal and social conflicts. Originally trained in negotiation at Harvard Law School, she now is a certified LR 39.1 mediator, a Restorative Circles practitioner, and an apprentice to Dominic Barter.

More...In her own words and a few resources:

Seattle Times Article
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2014113565_diazreport03m.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/02/02/2014113681.pdf

Also, with regard to the healing after the shooting, the work of the JTW project is really important to link to for me. That was another restorative response to the shooting -- a public art project and the totem pole. Check out: http://www.thejtwproject.org/

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