A Trip to Prison

On Thursday, June 24th, we had our debut of Control.Assault.Delete before a real audience. Linda, David Barker and I jumped into the car, turned the air conditioning to max in the sweltering 108 deg. Phoenix summer heat and started our trek to the Perryville Arizona Women's Prison facility. Along the way we met up with the awesome folks from GINA'S Team and continued our trip.

Upon reaching the compound, we saw the 150 inmates lining up to get into the building where the play was to be presented. All had on orange suits and even in the afternoon heat seemed in good spirits.

Things were a little hectic and we had little time to settle in before we started the program. This was our 7th domestic violence presentation to inmates in the Arizona Prison System and all 7 have been among the most satisfying of all the presentations Fix the Hurt makes. The play is about 55 minutes long, which gives Linda and I both plenty of lines to forget. From start to finish, these women were ompletely engrossed in the story. I am not sure how many had never seen a live play, but there were some. Tears flowed and smiles and laughter rang out at the appropriate times. They were gracious with their emotional outcries, tears streamed down cheeks as the story unraveled. We were given an immediate standing ovation at the end.

The over half hour question and answer session, reflected some insightful and emotional responses to lines in the play. One part of the play deals with the birth of the victim in the play. Linda uses a rolled piece of cloth with a portion of it draped over her shoulder to simulate the breast feeding of the newborn and talks about the emptiness being filled during the process. The line is, "in a few minutes the emptiness in her belly was gone and she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

One young inmate commented that this was significant to many of them because it was like the feeling they experienced with drug usage. We were gratified by the comments of the Assistant Warden, who stated to Sue Ellen Allen with GINA's Team, "I had many positive comments from the inmates following the event. I enjoyed this play and especially the fact that they touch on many areas that the women could relate to. John and Linda did an awesome performance and we appreciate their time and talents. I would love a repeat performance sometime in the future."

It is our hope that we can make presentations weekly to audiences inside the various state prison systems and outside prison systems to raise awareness of domestic violence and help prevent beatings, misery and death resulting from this blight.